Essential Contributions of Frontopolar Cortex to Primate Cognition

NEUROSCIENCE Bi-weekly Seminar

Series

Brodmann’s area 10 is one of the largest cytoarchitecturally defined regions in human cerebral cortex occupying the most anterior part of prefrontal cortex (frontopolar cortex, FPC) and is believed to sit atop of a prefrontal hierarchy involved in the highest level of executive control over the rest of prefrontal cortex. The similarity in cytoarchitecture and connections is highly suggestive of some conservation of FPC function across primate species, yet the crucial contributions that FPC makes to cognition are unknown. Rodents do not possess such a FPC but primates do and in this talk I’ll report the behavioural effects of the first circumscribed FPC lesion in any species. The crucial contributions made by FPC to cognition differ from those of other prefrontal and medial frontal regions and some of the key differences we have found in our recent research will be highlighted. In particular, the distinctive pattern of impaired, spared, and enhanced performance across eleven different behavioural tasks after FPC lesions reveals that FPC mediates exploration and rapid learning about the relative value of novel behavioral options of a broad kind. One may theorize that human FPC is imbued with greater processing power enabling humans to explore the relative value of a wider range of novel alternatives that support our more advanced goal-directed behaviours. Nonetheless, for some, for example highly developed flexibility in learning and shifting between potential goals in complex changing environments, precursors may exist in macaques.

MARK J. BUCKLEY

University of Oxford

Room 264, Geography Building, 3663 North Zhongshan Road | 中山北路3663号 地理楼264室 VENUEWEBSITEneuro.shanghai.nyu.edu

Mark Buckley is a behavioural neuroscientist from the UK who heads the Brain and Behaviour research group at the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University (the institution ranked 1st in the UK for neuroscience research in the 2014 REF exercise). Dr Buckley specializes in human and non-human primate (NHP) cognition and is one of the most experienced macaque neurosurgeons operating internationally and has published extensively on the neural basis of learning and memory and choice behaviour. Unlike brain imaging and electrophysiological recording, lesion studies provide important insight into the causal contributions made by brain regions and brain connections to behaviour. However, it is essential to integrate insight from interventions (lesions/inactivations) with understanding of the underlying mechanisms at the neuronal level as derived from neuronal recording studies in order to understand how networks of brain areas causally interact at the neuronal level. Much of Dr Buckley’s current work has this integrative focus and his laboratory also strives to bridge the species divide and bring the kinds of sophisticated knowledge of NHP brain function to bear upon our understanding of the human brain. After previously holding prestigious MRC and Royal Society Research Fellowships at Oxford University Dr Buckley was appointed to a Associate Professor in Experimental Psychology at Oxford University where he is also the Fellow in Psychology at The Queen's College, Oxford. The research conducted in the Brain and Behaviour research group is generously funded by grants from the UK Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust.

About the Speaker

12:00PM, September 25