FUNCTIONAL SPECIALIZATION WITHIN THE DORSOLATERAL FRONTAL-CORTEX FOR SERIAL ORDER MEMORY

Monkeys with lesions restricted to two anatomically distinct regions of the dorsolateral frontal cortex were tested on a novel task that was developed to assess memory for the order of occurrence of stimuli. Monkeys with bilateral lesions of the mid-dorsolateral frontal cortex (cytoarchitectonic areas 46 and 9) were severely impaired, whereas monkeys with lesions of the posterior region of the dorsolateral frontal cortex area 8 and rostral area 6) performed as well as the normal control animals. These results show that the primate mid-dorsolateral frontal cortex is a critical component of a neural circuit underlying the monitoring of the serial order of stimuli.