The neural correlates that relate auditory categorization to aspects of goal-directed behavior, such as decision-making, are not well understood. Since the prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays an important role in executive function and the categorization of auditory objects, we hypothesized that neural activity in the PFC should predict an animal's behavioral reports (decisions) during a category tas...

Extensive evidence suggests that long term dietary n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) deficiency results in altered emotional behaviour. We have recently demonstrated that n-3 PUFAs deficiency induces emotional alterations through abnormal corticosterone secretion which leads to altered dendritic arborisation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Here we show that hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal ...

Neural correlates of visual categories have been previously identified in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). However, whether individual neurons can represent multiple categories is unknown. Varying degrees of generalization versus specialization of neurons in the PFC have been theorized. We recorded from lateral PFC neural activity while monkeys switched between two different and independent categor...

Mothers are attracted by infant cues of a variety of different modalities. To clarify the possible neural mechanisms underlying maternal attraction to infant odor cues, we used near-infrared spectroscopy to examine prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity during odor detection tasks in which 19 mothers and 19 nulliparous females (nonmothers) were presented with infant or adult male odors. They were ins...

Emotion regulation is an ability that humans engage in throughout their lives. Disruption in this ability due to brain injury can have devastating consequences on the ability to function adaptively in complex environments. It has been observed that damage involving certain areas of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), including the ventromedial PFC (VMPFC), can result in long-lasting impairments in rea...

The functions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) underlie higher-level cognition. Varying proposals suggest that the PFC is organized along a rostral-caudal gradient of abstraction with more abstract representations/processes associated with more rostral areas. However, the operational definition of abstraction is unclear. Here, we contrasted 2 prominent theories of abstraction--temporal and relati...

Different categories of visual objects evoke distinct stimulus-evoked sensory responses in extrastriate visual cortex. Although numerous lines of evidence support a distinct representational neural architecture, the mechanisms underlying the modulation of the category selectivity by top-down influences remains uncertain. In this study, we investigate the causal role of the PFC in the modulation...

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) subserves reasoning in the service of adaptive behavior. Little is known, however, about the architecture of reasoning processes in the PFC. Using computational modeling and neuroimaging, we show here that the human PFC has two concurrent inferential tracks: (i) one from ventromedial to dorsomedial PFC regions that makes probabilistic inferences about the reliability...

Prefrontal cortex (PFC) and posterior parietal cortex are key brain areas for magnitude representations. Whether active discrimination of numerosity changes neuronal representations is still not known. We simultaneously recorded from the same recording sites in the PFC and ventral intraparietal area (VIP) before and after monkeys learned to actively discriminate the number of items in a set. On...

Previous research has identified the prefrontal cortex (PFC) as a brain region that is critical for cognitive control. Currently, theorists remain divided about whether to view the PFC as primarily a coordinative, mnemonic, or inhibitory structure. A theory is presented that attempts to resolve some of the apparent conflicts between the predominant views on PFC control functions. In this theory...