Integrative Psychological, Computational, and Mechanistic Approaches to Frontal Lobe Function

Excerpt

Since the earliest accounts of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), its core functions have remained elusive and hotly debated. Here, an attempt is made to bring order to these varied accounts and to account for the heterogeneous observations that have been made across methodologies and species. After cataloging the myriad functions that have been attributed to PFC and the approaches that have been taken to taxonomize these functions, a new framework is proposed for conceptualizing PFC function. This framework is based on a set of four canonical computations that is argued to collectively provide a more formal, coherent, and comprehensive account of existing findings regarding PFC function. These canonical computations include goal-directed integration, active maintenance, selection of task-relevant information, and monitoring. Discussion includes how previous PFC findings can be understood through one or more of these functions, and ways in which these computations may collectively form a motif that repeats throughout regions of PFC over different forms of inputs and outputs. Finally, critical directions for future research to validate or falsify this account of PFC functions are highlighted, including the leveraging of new and emerging directions for experimentation and analysis.