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The Journal of Neuroscience, January 1, 1998, 18(1):428-437
Dissociation Of Working Memory from Decision Making within the
Human Prefrontal Cortex
Antoine
Bechara1, 2,
Hanna
Damasio1, 3,
Daniel
Tranel1, and
Steven W.
Anderson1
1 Department of Neurology, Division of Behavioral
Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, and 2 Department of
Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa
City, Iowa, 52242, and 3 The Salk Institute of Biological
Studies, La Jolla, California, 92186
We tested the hypothesis that cognitive functions related to
working memory (assessed with delay tasks) are distinct from those
related to decision making (assessed with a gambling task), and that
working memory and decision making depend in part on separate
anatomical substrates. Normal controls (n = 21),
subjects with lesions in the ventromedial (VM) (n = 9) or dorsolateral/high mesial (DL/M) prefrontal cortices
(n = 10), performed on (1) modified delay tasks
that assess working memory and (2) a gambling task designed to measure
decision making. VM subjects with more anterior lesions
(n = 4) performed defectively on the gambling but
not the delay task. VM subjects with more posterior lesions
(n = 5) were impaired on both tasks.
Right DL/M subjects were impaired on the delay task but
not the gambling task. Left DL/M subjects were not
impaired on either task. The findings reveal a cognitive and anatomic
double dissociation between deficits in decision making (anterior VM)
and working memory (right DL/M). This presents the first direct
evidence of such effects in humans using the lesion method and
underscores the special importance of the VM prefrontal region in
decision making, independent of a direct role in working memory.
Key words:
decision making; working memory; dorsolateral prefrontal
cortex; orbitofrontal cortex; delay tasks; gambling tasks; disinhibition; control of interference
Copyright © 1998 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/98/181428-10$05.00/0
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