The functional architecture of the left posterior and lateral prefrontal cortex in humans
Cerebral Cortex. 2008-02-27; 18(10): 2460-2469
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhn010
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1. Cereb Cortex. 2008 Oct;18(10):2460-9. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhn010. Epub 2008 Feb
27.
The functional architecture of the left posterior and lateral prefrontal cortex
in humans.
Volle E(1), Kinkingnéhun S, Pochon JB, Mondon K, Thiebaut de Schotten M, Seassau
M, Duffau H, Samson Y, Dubois B, Levy R.
Author information:
(1)Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale, U610, Paris,
France.
The anatomical and functional organization of the lateral prefrontal cortex
(LPFC) is one of the most debated issues in cognitive and integrative
neurosciences. The aim of this study is to determine whether the human LPFC is
organized according to the domain of information, to the level of the processing
or to both of these dimensions. In order to clarify this issue, we have designed
an experimental protocol that combines a functional magnetic resonance imaging
study in healthy subjects (n = 12) and a voxel-by-voxel lesion mapping study in
patients with focal prefrontal lesions (n = 37) compared with normal controls (n
= 48). Each method used the same original cognitive paradigm (« the domain n-back
tasks ») that tests by a cross-dimensional method the domain of information
(verbal, spatial, faces) and the level of processing (from 1- to 3-back).
Converging data from the 2 methods demonstrate that the left posterior LPFC is
critical for the higher levels of cognitive control and is organized into
functionally different subregions (Brodman’s area 9/46, 6/8/9, and 44/45). These
findings argue in favor of a hybrid model of organization of the left posterior
LPFC in which domain-oriented (nonspatial and spatially oriented) and
cross-domain executive-dependent regions coexist, reconciling previously
divergent data.
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhn010
PMID: 18308710 [Indexed for MEDLINE]