PRIMATE FRONTAL CORTEX

An experimentally based model of the functions of the primate frontal cortex is presented. This model concerns the interactions which occur among neural inhibitory processes. At the neuronal level self-inhibition of the Renshaw type is assumed involved as the substrate of internal inhibition. At the psychophysiological level self-inhibition leads to habituation which has been shown to be the construction of a neuronal model of the organism's experience. At the systems-neurophysiological level the construction of this neuronal model is found to be controlled by efferent brain processes which can bias the input processing mechanism in favor of either external or internal inhibition. The frontal cortex shifts the mechanism toward internal inhibition, i.e. habituation. At the neurobehavioral level such a shift accomplishes the suppression of interference and thus serves to give temporal organization to the psychological process much as linguistic parsing gives meaning to language. © 1969.