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Volume 17, Number 23,
Issue of December 1, 1997
Dissociable Forms of Inhibitory Control within Prefrontal Cortex
with an Analog of the Wisconsin Card Sort Test: Restriction to Novel
Situations and Independence from "On-Line" Processing
R. Dias1,
T.
W. Robbins1, and
A. C. Roberts2
1 Department of Experimental Psychology, University of
Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, United Kingdom, and
2 Department of Anatomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge,
CB2 3DY, United Kingdom
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
EXPERIMENT 1: A NEUROANATOMICAL ANALYSIS OF ATTENTIONAL
SET-SHIFTING AND DISCRIMINATION REVERSAL
EXPERIMENT 2: INHIBITORY CONTROL VERSUS "ON-LINE"
PROCESSING
DISCUSSION
FOOTNOTES
REFERENCES
ABSTRACT
Attentional set-shifting and discrimination reversal are sensitive
to prefrontal damage in the marmoset in a manner qualitatively similar
to that seen in man and Old World monkeys, respectively (Dias et al.,
1996b ). Preliminary findings have demonstrated that although lateral
but not orbital prefrontal cortex is the critical locus in
shifting an attentional set between
perceptual dimensions, orbital but not lateral prefrontal cortex is the
critical locus in reversing a stimulus-reward
association within a particular perceptual dimension
(Dias et al., 1996a ). The present study presents this analysis in full
and extends the results in three main ways by demonstrating that (1)
mechanisms of inhibitory control and "on-line" processing are
independent within the prefrontal cortex, (2) impairments in inhibitory
control induced by prefrontal damage are restricted to novel
situations, and (3) those prefrontal areas involved in the suppression
of previously established response sets are not involved in the
acquisition of such response sets.
These findings suggest that inhibitory control is a general
process that operates across functionally distinct regions within the
prefrontal cortex. Although damage to lateral prefrontal cortex causes
a loss of inhibitory control in attentional selection, damage to
orbitofrontal cortex causes a loss of inhibitory control in affective
processing. These findings provide an explanation for the apparent
discrepancy between human and nonhuman primate studies in which
disinhibition as measured on the Wisconsin Card Sort Test is associated
with dorsolateral prefrontal damage, whereas disinhibition as measured
on discrimination reversal is associated with orbitofrontal damage.
Key words:
attentional set-shifting;
reversal learning;
prefrontal cortex;
response inhibition;
Wisconsin Card Sort Test;
working memory
INTRODUCTION
Converging evidence from a diverse
range of human and nonhuman primate studies suggests that the
prefrontal cortex is critically involved in processes of working memory
(Fuster, 1985 ; Goldman-Rakic,1987; Courtney et al., 1996 ), behavioral
inhibition (Milner, 1964 ; Mishkin, 1964 ; Diamond, 1990 ; Rolls et al.,
1994 ; Knight and Grabowecky, 1995 ; Dias et al., 1996a ,b ), and novelty
detection (Shallice and Burgess, 1993 ; Knight and Grabowecky,1995), but
how such processes are organized within the prefrontal cortex and
whether they occur independently of one another is unclear. From
studies in monkeys there is evidence for a global role of the
prefrontal cortex in a process that holds representations of stimulus
information "on-line" (Goldman-Rakic, 1987 ), an important component
of working memory, with independent analysis of visual and spatial
information in adjacent prefrontal regions (Wilson et al., 1993 ).
Recently, we provided preliminary evidence for another general process,
response inhibition, which operates within different regions of the
prefrontal cortex to affect different forms of cognitive processing,
even within the same modality (Dias et al., 1996a ). These
findings will now be presented in full together with new data that
extend the results in three main ways by demonstrating, first, the
independence of the processes of response inhibition and of
holding information on-line within the prefrontal cortex; second, that
impairments in response inhibition induced by prefrontal damage are
restricted to novel situations, and third, that those prefrontal areas
involved in the suppression of previously established response sets are not involved in the acquisition of such response sets.
In these experiments, marmosets were trained to make visual
discriminations between two compound stimuli, each consisting of a
black line superimposed over a blue polygon. For some marmosets the
correct response depended on the shape of the black line and for others
it depended on the shape of the blue polygon. In Experiment 1 monkeys
were trained, preoperatively, to maintain an attentional set (i.e., to
respond to a particular perceptual dimension such as the black lines,
based on previous experience, over a series of discriminations).
Subsequently, the effects of lesions of the lateral or orbital
prefrontal cortex were compared on the ability of marmosets to shift
their responding at two different levels of response selection, that of
stimulus-reward or "affective" associations (visual discrimination
reversal) and that of attentional selection for specific perceptual
dimensions (attentional set shifting). Performance was studied across
repeated shifts to determine the specificity of any disruption to the
first occasion that such shifts of responding were required.
In Experiment 2 the marmosets were given no previous experience with
the compound stimuli before surgery to establish whether the same
region of prefrontal cortex that impaired the ability to shift an
attentional set in Experiment 1 also contributed to the ability to
acquire an attentional set. In addition, Experiment 2 tested explicitly
the hypothesis that the deficits in inhibitory control observed in
Experiment 1 were independent of deficits in on-line processing.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Subjects
Eighteen common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), 13 females and 5 males, were used in the present study. Nine marmosets of mean age 15 months were used in Experiment 1, and nine marmosets of
mean age 13 months were used in Experiment 2. All monkeys were obtained
from the Clinical Research Centre (Harrow, UK) and were housed
individually or in sibling pairs. After the daily session of behavioral
testing, monkeys were fed 20 gm of MP.E1 primate diet [Special Diet
Services (SDS), Withams, Essex, UK], two pieces of carrot, and one
piece of apple. The diet was supplemented on weekends with additional
fruit, eggs, bread, marmoset jelly (SDS), and peanuts.
Surgery
Identification of both the lateral and orbital regions of the
prefrontal cortex of the marmoset has been described in a previous study (Dias et al., 1996b ). In brief, lateral and orbital prefrontal cortex were distinguishable from one another and from surrounding areas
on the basis of distinct differences in their cytoarchitectonics. Lateral prefrontal cortex corresponds to Brodmann's area 9, and orbital prefrontal cortex includes Brodmann's areas 10, 11, 12, and 13 in his description of the marmoset prefrontal cortex (Brodmann, 1909 ).
Standardization of stereotaxic coordinates. All marmosets
were anesthetized with pentobarbitone (0.15 ml of a 60 mg/ml solution, i.p.) and placed in a stereotaxic frame that used a head holder with
incisor and zygoma bars specially modified for the marmoset. Given that
there is no stereotaxic atlas of the prefrontal cortex in the marmoset
and we have found considerable individual variation within the frontal
pole, a requirement of the present study was to use infusion
coordinates that were tailor-made for each individual marmoset. To
achieve this, the thickness of brain tissue was determined at the
particular stereotaxic coordinate of anterior-posterior (AP) 17.5, lateral-medial (LM) ±1.5 (standardization coordinate) for each
marmoset. The thickness was determined by taking a stereotaxic reading
as the tip of the infusion syringe pierced the surface of the brain and
then again as it touched the base of the brain. If the thickness of
tissue was between 5.8 and 6.5 mm, no adjustments were made to the
infusion coordinates. However, if the thickness of tissue fell outside
of this range, then the standardization coordinate was adjusted
accordingly along the anterior-posterior plane until the thickness of
tissue fell within this range. For example, if a depth of 5.5 mm was
obtained, then the standardization coordinate had to be moved
posteriorly by 0.4 mm to obtain a thickness of tissue between 5.8 and
6.5 mm. Accordingly, all infusion coordinates would then be adjusted
for that particular marmoset, so that rather than using an infusion
coordinate of AP 18.5, a coordinate of AP 18.1 would be used.
Excitotoxic lesions of the orbital prefrontal cortex of the
marmoset. The orbital region of prefrontal cortex was destroyed by
injecting 0.4-0.6 µl/site of a 0.09 M solution of
quinolinic acid (Sigma, St. Louis, MO) in 0.01 M phosphate
buffer, pH 7.0, bilaterally into 10 sites within the prefrontal cortex
(n = 3). The stereotaxic coordinates that were used are
outlined in Table 1. For all placements,
infusions were made over 100 sec through a stainless steel cannula (30 gauge) attached to a 2 µl precision Hamilton sampling syringe. The
cannula then remained in place for 4 min before being withdrawn by 1 mm, and it remained at this position for an additional 2 min before
being completely removed from the brain.
Table 1.
Stereotaxic coordinates used to lesion the orbital and
lateral prefrontal cortex
| AP (mm) |
LM
(mm) |
Angle |
Position of cannula from base of skull
(mm) |
Volume of quinolinic acid injected (µl)
|
|
| Orbital prefrontal lesion
|
| +16.00 |
±4.0 |
|
0.8 |
0.4
|
| +16.00 |
±2.0 |
|
0.7 |
0.5
|
| +16.75 |
±3.0 |
|
0.7 |
0.6
|
| +17.75 |
±2.0 |
|
0.7 |
0.6
|
| +18.50 |
±2.0 |
|
0.7 |
0.5 |
| Lateral prefrontal
lesion |
| +16.00 |
±6.2 |
10° |
0.9 |
1.0
|
| +16.75 |
±5.9 |
8° |
1.0 |
0.6
|
| +16.75 |
±5.9 |
8° |
1.5 |
0.6
|
| +17.50 |
±5.6 |
8° |
1.0 |
1.0
|
| +18.25 |
±5.3 |
8° |
1.0 |
1.5
|
| +19.00 |
±4.6 |
8° |
0.7 |
0.8
|
| +20.00 |
±3.0 |
Upright |
1.7 |
0.5 |
|
|
All coordinates were adjusted accordingly, in line with the
"depth check" coordinate, as discussed in Materials and
Methods.
|
|
Excitotoxic lesions of the lateral prefrontal cortex of the
marmoset. The lateral region of prefrontal cortex was destroyed by
injecting 0.5-1.5 µl/site of a 0.09 M solution of
quinolinic acid bilaterally into 14 sites within the prefrontal cortex
(n = 3). The stereotaxic coordinates that were used are
presented in Table 1. A 10 µl Hamilton syringe was used for angled
injections, and a 2 µl Hamilton syringe was used for upright
injections.
All sham-operated control monkeys received infusions of the
phosphate buffer vehicle into either the orbital prefrontal cortex (n = 1) or the lateral prefrontal cortex
(n = 2). After surgery, all monkeys that had received
the excitotoxin quinolinic acid into the orbital or lateral regions of
prefrontal cortex were administered Valium (Roche, Products,
Hertfordshire, UK) (1.5 mg/kg, i.m.) intermittently over the first 24 hr to suppress any epileptic seizure activity.
Histology
All monkeys were perfused transcardially with 300 ml 0.1 M PBS, pH 7.3, followed by 500 ml 10% formalin fixative,
administered over ~10 min. The entire brain was then placed in
fixative solution overnight before transferral to a 30% sucrose
solution, where it was left for a minimum of 48 hr before histological
evaluation. Sections were then cut on a sledge freezing microtome at a
thickness of 60 µm. Every third section was mounted on a
gelatin-coated glass microscope slide and stained with cresyl fast
violet. A Leitz DMRD microscope was used to view the sections, of which drawings were made with the aid of a drawing tube attachment. Lesioned
areas were defined as regions of major neuronal loss often accompanied
by marked gliosis. The extent and size of the lesion of each marmoset
was then schematized onto drawings of a series of sections depicting
the marmoset prefrontal cortex. In addition, the prefrontal cortical
lesioned areas were documented photographically using a Zeiss
Ultraphot2 (macro). Photomicrographs of the cresyl fast violet-stained
coronal sections were taken at both high and low magnification through
an intermediate level of the frontal pole of a representative marmoset
from the orbital- and lateral-lesioned groups.
Behavioral apparatus
In the present study both set-shifting ability and reversal
learning were measured in a specially designed "hand-testing" apparatus (for a detailed description of the apparatus, see Dias et
al., 1996b ). In brief, the monkeys sat in a Perspex transport cage, and
when one side of it was removed they were able to look through a window
with Perspex bars (21 × 7.5 cm). On the other side of the window
were two wooden boxes (3 × 3 × 7 cm) that were open on only
one side and positioned within arm's reach of the monkey on the far
right and far left of a shelf (24 × 5.5 cm). Attached to the
front of each test box was a piece of transparent Perspex behind which
the stimulus cards were placed. Two screens, one transparent and one
opaque, were placed between the window and the test boxes during the
intertrial interval (ITI). At the start of each trial, the opaque
screen was removed, leaving the transparent screen in place, and the
monkey was allowed to tap the screen immediately in front of one of the
two stimuli. A response to one of the stimuli resulted in the removal
of the screen, enabling the monkey to turn the chosen box around and
remove the reward from within. A response to the other stimulus
resulted in the immediate replacement of the opaque screen and no
reward. The compound visual stimuli used in all discrimination tasks
consisted of black lines (45 mm high) superimposed over blue-filled
shapes (38 mm high and 38 mm wide at their broadest point). These
stimuli were identical to those used in previous set-shifting studies using the hand-testing procedure (Dias et al., 1996a ,b ), and the only
difference from the computerized version of the task used previously in
both monkey (Roberts et al., 1992 , 1994 ) and human studies (Owen et
al., 1993 ) was that the lines were black rather than white.
EXPERIMENT 1: A NEUROANATOMICAL ANALYSIS OF ATTENTIONAL
SET-SHIFTING AND DISCRIMINATION REVERSAL
Behavioral methods
Preoperative testing
Simple visual discrimination and reversal. All monkeys
were trained on a simple visual discrimination (SD1) consisting of either a pair of blue-filled shapes (n = 4; "shape"
group) (Fig. 1a) or a pair of
black lines (n = 5; "line" group) presented
randomly and simultaneously on two test boxes positioned on the far
right and left of the test apparatus. A response to either Shape (S)1 or Line (L)1 resulted in removal of the transparent screen, allowing the monkey access to a marshmallow (Woolworths) hidden within the test
box, whereas an incorrect response to S2 or L2 resulted in the
replacement of the opaque screen and no reward. A response to either
stimulus ended the trial. There was a 5 sec ITI. All subjects received
training on the simple visual discrimination for 32 trials/day until
they reached a criterion of 90% correct for three consecutive
sessions. Once criterion was attained on the simple visual
discrimination, on the following session the reward contingencies were
reversed such that the stimulus that had been negatively correlated
with reward was now positively correlated with reward and vice versa,
i.e., a response to S2 or L2 was now rewarded.
Fig. 1.
The shape and line exemplars used for the
various stages of the attentional set-shifting paradigm. In this
example the dimension of "shape" is relevant in all the
discriminations except that requiring an EDS
(d) and reversal (e)
and subsequent IDS II (f). On any one
trial of a compound discrimination, a shape exemplar may be paired with
one or other of the line exemplars. Correct and incorrect choices are
indicated by + and , respectively. Gray typeface
specifies that "shape" is the relevant dimension, whereas
black typeface specifies that "line" is the relevant
dimension.
[View Larger Version of this Image (33K GIF file)]
Compound visual discriminations. After successful
performance on the simple visual discrimination reversal, the second
alternative dimension was introduced to form compound stimuli
comprising black lines superimposed over blue-filled shapes (CD1) (Fig.
1b). On any one trial a black line was paired with one of
the blue-filled shapes. To succeed, a monkey was required to continue
responding to the previously correct stimulus, ignoring the stimuli
from the new irrelevant dimension. Two additional compound
discriminations [or intradimensional shifts (IDSs)] were presented
before surgery, composed of new exemplars from each of the two
dimensions (CD2, CD3). For those monkeys trained on blue-filled shapes,
shapes remained correlated with reward and one of the two novel shape exemplars was positively associated with reward, whereas for those monkeys trained on black lines, lines remained correlated with reward
and one of the two novel black line exemplars was positively associated
with reward. As before, stimuli from the second dimension were
uncorrelated with reward and therefore remained irrelevant to the
discriminations.
All monkeys were then allocated to one of three groups on the basis of
their learning scores on the final two compound visual discriminations.
They then received infusions of the excitotoxin quinolinic acid into
either the orbital (ORB group; n = 3) or lateral (LAT
group; n = 3) regions of the prefrontal cortex, or they
received sham surgery (control group; n = 3).
Postoperative testing
Two weeks after surgery, all monkeys were tested for 32 trials/day
on a series of visual discriminations, in which advancement to the next
discrimination was contingent on reaching a performance level of 90%
correct in two consecutive sessions. The full test design is presented
in Table 2, Experiment 1. A summary,
however, is provided below.
Table 2.
The shape and line exemplars used for the various stages of
the attentional set-shifting paradigm in Experiments 1 and 2
| Discrimination |
Exemplars |
|
| Experiment 1 |
| Simple |
S1+ S2 |
| Simple
reversal |
S1 S2+ |
| Series of compound
discriminations (CD1,CD2) |
| Compound discrimination prior to
surgery (CD3) |
S5+ S6 |
|
L5 L6 |
| Surgery
|
| Retention test (CD3) |
S5+ S6 |
|
L5 L6
|
| Two novel compound discriminations (IDS1,IDS2) |
| Compound
discrimination prior to EDS (IDS3) |
S11+ S12 |
|
L11
L12 |
| Probe test |
S11+ S12 |
|
L13 L14
|
| Extra-dimensional shift (EDS1) |
L15+ L16
|
|
S15 S16 |
| Compound reversal (EDS1R) |
L15
L16+ |
|
S15 S16 |
| Two novel compound discriminations
(IDS4,5) and reversals (IDS4R,5R) |
| Compound discrimination prior
to EDS2 (IDS5R) |
L19 L20+ |
|
S19 S20 |
| Second
extra-dimensional shift (EDS2) |
S21+ S22 |
|
L21 L22
|
| Compound reversal (EDS2R) |
S21 S22+ |
|
L21
L22 |
| Experiment 2 |
| Simple |
P1+ P2 |
| Simple
reversal |
P1 P2+ |
| Surgery |
| Retention
test |
P1 P2+ |
| Compound discrimination
(IDS1) |
S1+ S2 |
|
L1 L2 |
| Two novel compound
discriminations (IDS2,IDS3) |
| Compound discrimination prior to
compound reversal (IDS4) |
S7+ S8 |
|
L7 L8
|
| Compound reversal (IDS4R) |
S7 S8+ |
|
L7 L8
|
| Compound discrimination (IDS5) |
S9 S10+
|
|
L9 L10 |
| Compound reversal (IDS5R) |
S9+
S10 |
|
L9 L10 |
| Probe test |
S9+ S10
|
|
L11 L12 |
| Extra-dimensional shift (EDS) |
L13+
L14 |
|
S13 S14 |
| Compound reversal
(EDSR) |
L13 L14+ |
|
S13 S14 |
|
The examples given illustrate the precise sequence of
discriminations for those monkeys trained initially on
"shapes."
S, L, Dimensions of shape and line, respectively; P,
pattern; 1-22, individual line and shape exemplars; +, ,
reinforcement value of the stimulus. Letters and numbers in bold
indicate which dimension is relevant.
|
|
(1) Retention of the compound discrimination they had learned
immediately before surgery.
(2) A series of three novel compound discriminations or IDSs. Each
discrimination (IDS1, IDS2, IDS3) required the monkey to learn which of
two novel exemplars from the previously relevant dimension was
positively correlated with reward (Fig. 1c).
(3) A probe test. After completion of the third IDS (IDS3), the
exemplars from the irrelevant dimension were replaced with two novel exemplars, whereas the exemplars from the relevant dimension and the reward contingencies remained the same, i.e., the exemplar from
the relevant dimension that had been previously associated with reward
continued to be associated with reward. This stage of the task was used
to determine that the monkeys were not solving each discrimination on
the basis of gestalt images (combining line and shape exemplars to form
a compound image) (Roberts et al., 1988 ). Once the monkeys had
reattained criterion they were returned to the original compound
discrimination (IDS3) before the next stage.
(4) An extradimensional shift (EDS). A new compound
discrimination (EDS1) in which one of the two novel exemplars from the previously irrelevant dimension became positively correlated
with reward, thus requiring a shift of attentional set from one
perceptual dimension of the compound stimulus to another (Fig.
1d).
(5) A compound discrimination reversal. The exemplar from the relevant
dimension that had been previously negatively correlated with reward
became positively correlated with reward and vice versa (Fig.
1e, EDS1R).
(6) Two novel compound discriminations or IDSs and subsequent reversals
(IDS4, IDS4R, IDS5, IDS5R). In the discriminations requiring an IDS,
one of the two novel exemplars from the new relevant perceptual
dimension was positively correlated with reward (Fig. 1f). In the
reversals, the exemplar that had been previously negatively correlated
with reward became positively correlated with reward and vice versa.
The exemplars from the previously relevant dimension were uncorrelated
with reward. This extended series of IDSs and reversals was used to
ensure that all monkeys had acquired the new attentional "set"
before a second shift.
(7) A second EDS (EDS2). A discrimination comprising novel compound
stimuli that required a shift of attentional set from the
current relevant dimension back to the other perceptual dimension that
had been relevant before the first EDS (Fig. 1g).
(8) A compound discrimination reversal (EDS2R). The exemplar that had
been previously negatively correlated with reward in EDS2 became
positively correlated with reward and vice versa.
The number of errors that were made before reaching criterion were
recorded for each discrimination.
Statistical methods
All behavioral data were analyzed using the CLR ANOVA statistical
package (Clear Lake Research). Whenever the distribution of these
variables violated the assumptions made for the ANOVA, an appropriate
transformation was used. Planned comparisons were made using simple
main effects.
Results
Histological assessment of lesion
Both the lateral and orbital prefrontal cortex lesions in the
marmoset in this first experiment have been detailed previously (Dias
et al., 1996a ), including representative photomicrographs and schematic
drawings of all the lesioned monkeys. These lesions were similar to
those described comprehensively in Experiment 2 of this paper.
Behavioral effects
Retention and new learning of compound visual discrimination
problems. Preoperatively, the monkeys that were scheduled to receive either quinolinic acid or phosphate buffer vehicle into the
lateral or orbital regions of prefrontal cortex did not differ in their
ability to learn either a simple or compound discrimination (F < 1) (see Table 3 for
mean ± SEM).
Table 3.
Mean scores (±SEM) for Experiment 1
| Discrimination |
Mean number of
errors to criterion ± SEM
|
| Control |
LAT lesion |
ORB lesion
|
|
| All preoperative discriminations |
104.7
± 56.1 |
65.7 ± 28.6 |
51.3 ± 25.0 |
| Retention test
(CD3) |
0.0 ± 0.0 |
0.0 ± 0.0 |
1.0 ± 1.0
|
| Intradimensional shift 1 (IDS1) |
5.7 ± 5.2 |
17.0
± 5.7 |
8.0 ± 3.1 |
| Intradimensional shift 2 (IDS2) |
11.7
± 5.2 |
5.0 ± 3.2 |
10.0 ± 3.9 |
| Intradimensional shift 3 (IDS3) |
3.7 ± 2.5 |
3.7 ± 2.5 |
8.3 ± 2.1
|
| Extradimensional shift 1 (EDS1) |
13.3 ± 1.8 |
37.0
± 6.3* |
16.7 ± 2.2 |
| Compound reversal 1 (EDS1R) |
16.0
± 0.7 |
18.3 ± 4.0 |
41.0 ± 2.5* |
| Intradimensional shift
4 (IDS4) |
1.7 ± 1.7 |
2.0 ± 2.0 |
0.0 ± 0.0
|
| Compound reversal 2 (IDS4R) |
6.3 ± 2.3 |
5.7
± 2.0 |
9.3 ± 3.2 |
| Intradimensional shift 5 (IDS5) |
0.0
± 0.0 |
0.0 ± 0.0 |
0.0 ± 0.0 |
| Compound reversal 3 (IDS5R) |
5.3 ± 0.4 |
5.7 ± 2.0 |
5.3 ± 3.6
|
| Extradimensional shift 2 (EDS2) |
6.7 ± 1.8 |
7.7
± 1.1 |
5.7 ± 1.1 |
| Compound reversal 4 (EDS2R) |
7.7
± 2.9 |
5.0 ± 3.1 |
7.3 ± 1.8 |
|
|
*
p < 0.001.
|
|
Postoperatively, all groups returned to criterion on the first test
session (see Table 3 for mean ± SEM), thus there were no
differences in performance of the retention test across the three
groups (F < 1). Similarly, there was no effect of
either lesion on the acquisition of the subsequent series of three
novel discriminations or IDS, which required the monkey to maintain attention toward the previously relevant perceptual dimension (see
Table 3 for mean ± SEM). ANOVA of the square root transformed data for all three discriminations revealed that there were no effects
of Lesion (F < 1) or Discrimination (F < 1) and that the Lesion × Discrimination interaction did not
reach the 5% level of significance (F(4,12) = 2.81; p = 0.074).
Probe test. The introduction of novel exemplars of the
irrelevant dimension had no effect on performance in control, lateral prefrontal, or orbital prefrontal lesioned monkeys; in all three groups
the monkeys continued to respond to the previously correct exemplar at
the 90% correct criterion level. A comparison of the errors made on
the previous test session when all monkeys were performing at the 90%
criterion level revealed no effect of the probe (F < 1) or the lesion (F < 1), and no interaction of the lesion with the probe (F < 1).
EDS. All monkeys took longer to acquire the discrimination
requiring an EDS compared with the immediately preceding discrimination requiring an IDS (Fig.
2A), confirming that
all monkeys had developed an attentional set and therefore were
required to shift attentional set at the EDS stage of the test.
However, although the performance of monkeys with lesions of the
lateral prefrontal cortex was equivalent to both controls and monkeys
with lesions of the orbital prefrontal cortex on the discrimination
requiring an IDS, their performance was significantly inferior to both
of the other groups on the discrimination requiring an EDS (Fig.
2A). ANOVA of the total errors to reach criterion on
the EDS and the preceding IDS showed a main effect of Shift
(F(1,6) = 143.73; p < 0.001)
and a significant Lesion × Shift interaction
(F(2,6) = 32.37; p < 0.001).
Further analysis of the simple main effects showed that although all
marmosets regardless of their surgery exhibited superior IDS
performance over their EDS performance, those marmosets with lesions
specific to the lateral prefrontal cortex were significantly impaired
at the EDS stage of the task, making three times as many errors as either orbital prefrontal lesioned or control marmosets before reaching
criterion (F(2,9) = 23.14; p < 0.001).
Fig. 2.
A, Mean number of errors (±SEM) to
reach criterion on a visual discrimination that requires an IDS (third
discrimination of the series of three that were presented
postoperatively), an EDS, and a reversal, EDSR, in monkeys that
received excitotoxic lesions of either the lateral
(LAT) (n = 3)
(pale hatched bars) or orbital prefrontal cortex
(ORB) (n = 3) (dark hatched
bars) or a sham operation (n = 3)
(open bars). B, Mean number of errors
(±SEM) to reach criterion on subsequent visual discriminations that
require an intradimensional shift (IDS), an
extradimensional shift (EDS), and a reversal
(REV). * Lateral prefrontal lesioned group
differed significantly from controls and orbital prefrontal lesioned
group; p < 0.001. ** Orbital prefrontal lesioned
group differed significantly from controls and lateral prefrontal
lesioned group; p < 0.001.
[View Larger Version of this Image (21K GIF file)]
It is difficult to determine whether the marmosets with lesions of the
lateral prefrontal cortex were impaired at the extradimensional stage
of the task because they perseverated to the previously relevant
dimension. To demonstrate perseveration of an attentional set, it is
necessary to demonstrate that monkeys continue to respond to one of the
stimulus features, i.e., blue polygons but not black lines, over many
trials. However, because on any one trial each of the two compound
stimuli are composed of a blue polygon paired with one of the black
lines, it is not possible unambiguously to determine from a single
trial whether the monkey is responding to blue polygons or black lines.
Consequently, performance must be monitored over multiple trials, and
then perseveration can be characterized only if the monkey chooses
consistently over a series of trials one of the exemplars from the
previously relevant dimension. Such behavior has been displayed, to
varying degrees, by monkeys in our previous set-shifting studies
(Roberts et al., 1992 , 1994 ), and in the former of these the extent of
this perseveration was shown to correlate positively with their overall
performance on the EDS. In this experiment, two out of the three
sham-operated monkeys responded repeatedly (five or six consecutive
responses; p < 0.05) to one of the exemplars from the
previously relevant dimension at the start of the EDS. The same was
true for all three monkeys that received an orbital prefrontal lesion
and two of the three monkeys that received a lateral prefrontal lesion.
Similar perseverative patterns were not seen at the start of the
immediately preceding IDS, showing that all monkeys were indeed
attending to the previously relevant dimension at the start of the EDS. However, there was no obvious difference between the three groups.
Compound discrimination reversal. In contrast to performance
on the EDS, performance on the discrimination reversal stage of the
task was impaired by lesions of the orbital prefrontal cortex and not
the lateral prefrontal cortex (Fig. 2A). ANOVA of the
total errors to reach criterion on the discrimination reversal revealed
a main effect of Lesion (F(2,6) = 37.86;
p < 0.001). Moreover, although both lesioned and
sham-operated control monkeys showed marked perseveration on this first
reversal (EDSR) by continuing to respond to the previously correct
exemplar for many trials, the extent of this perseveration was far
greater in the orbital prefrontal lesioned monkeys than in the
sham-operated controls or the lateral prefrontal lesioned monkeys.
If errors were classified as perseverative only until the monkeys had
made their first correct response, then there were no significant
differences across the three groups of monkeys (F < 1). However, it was clear from the data that the pattern of responding
observed in those marmosets with selective lesions of the orbital
prefrontal cortex was far more perseverative than that observed in both
control and lateral prefrontal lesioned marmosets. Once control and
lateral prefrontal lesioned monkeys had made a response away from the
previously rewarded stimulus, they then continued to respond randomly
until they shifted to the exemplar positively correlated with reward.
By contrast, marmosets with lesions specific to the orbital prefrontal
cortex returned to responding to the previously rewarded stimulus for
many trials after making their first response away from that stimulus,
although they had experienced reward for responding to the other
stimulus (Fig. 3). Consequently, all
errors within each half session (16 trials) were defined as
perseverative if the monkey's performance across the 16 trials was
significantly below chance (i.e., four or fewer correct responses).
ANOVA of these data revealed that monkeys with lesions of the orbital
prefrontal cortex made significantly more perseverative responses on
the reversal, i.e., responses to the exemplar that had been rewarded
previously, than either sham-operated controls or marmosets with
lesions of the lateral prefrontal cortex (F(2,6) > 100; p < 0.0001).
Fig. 3.
Mean cumulative errors made over the first session
of the reversal (EDSR) by monkeys that received excitotoxic lesions of either the lateral (LAT) (n = 3)
(filled triangles) or orbital prefrontal cortex
(ORB) (n = 3) (filled
circles) or a sham operation (n = 3)
(open circles). Horizontal line at
a and b indicates the level of
performance significantly different from chance
(p < 0.05) on 16 trials, i.e., 12 or more
incorrect responses, and 20 trials, i.e., 15 or more incorrect
responses, respectively.
[View Larger Version of this Image (15K GIF file)]
To summarize, although lesions of the lateral prefrontal cortex
increased selectively the number of errors made before attaining criterion on the EDS but not the IDS or reversal, lesions of the orbital prefrontal cortex increased selectively the number of errors
made before attaining criterion on the reversal but not the IDSs or
EDSs (Fig. 2A). An ANOVA of errors to criterion with the factors of Lesion (lateral, orbital, and control) and Test (final
IDS of the series of three that were presented postoperatively, EDS,
and reversal) showed a main effect of Lesion
(F(2,6) = 12.72; p < 0.01) and
an interaction of Lesion × Test (F(4,12) = 18.92; p < 0.001). Post hoc analysis of the
simple main effects showed that there was a profound effect of
lesioning on the EDS (F(2,18) = 23.78;
p < 0.001) and on the reversal
(F(2,18) = 25.57; p < 0.001)
but not on the IDS (F(2,18) = 1.05).
Subsequent IDSs (IDS4 and IDS5) and reversals (IDS4R and
IDS5R). There was no effect of either lesion on acquisition of the subsequent series of novel discriminations or IDSs, which required the
monkey to maintain attention toward the perceptual dimension that had
been relevant at the immediately preceding EDS stage of the task (see
Table 3 for mean ± SEM). ANOVA of the errors to reach criterion
for both discriminations revealed that there were no effects of
Discrimination (F < 1) or Lesion (F < 1), and no Lesion × Discrimination interaction (F < 1). Neither was there any effect of either lesion on subsequent
reversal learning. ANOVA of the total errors to reach criterion on the
second (IDS4R) and third (IDS5R) discrimination reversals revealed that
there were no effects of Reversal (F < 1) or Lesion
(F < 1), and no Lesion × Reversal interaction
(F < 1).
Second EDS and reversal (EDS2 and EDS2R). All monkeys took
longer to acquire the discrimination requiring an EDS (EDS2) compared with the preceding discrimination requiring an IDS (IDS5), confirming that all monkeys had developed an attentional set to the second perceptual dimension and therefore were required to shift attentional set back to the dimension that was relevant at the start of the study
(Fig. 2B). However, there were no significant
differences between the three groups on this EDS2 (see Table 3 for
mean ± SEM). Similarly, there was no effect of either lesion on
the compound discrimination reversal succeeding EDS2 (F < 1). ANOVA of the total errors to reach criterion on EDS2 and
preceding IDS5 showed a main effect of Shift
(F(1,6) = 109.09; p < 0.001),
but no effect of Lesion (F < 1) and no Lesion × Shift interaction (F < 1).
EXPERIMENT 2: INHIBITORY CONTROL VERSUS "ON-LINE"
PROCESSING
Behavioral methods
Preoperative testing
Simple visual discrimination and reversal. All monkeys
(n = 9) were trained on a simple pattern discrimination
(P1) consisting of a pair of green-dot patterns. A response to one of
the patterns, P1, resulted in reward, whereas a response to the other
pattern, P2, did not. All subjects received training on the pattern
discrimination for 32 trials/day until they reached a criterion of 90%
correct for three consecutive sessions. Once criterion was attained, on the following session the reward contingencies were reversed such that
the pattern that had been negatively correlated with reward was now
positively correlated with reward and vice versa; i.e., a response to
P2 was now rewarded.
All monkeys were then allocated to one of three groups on the basis of
their combined learning scores on the pattern discrimination and
reversal. They then received infusions of the excitotoxin quinolinic
acid into either the orbital (ORB group; n = 3) or lateral (LAT group; n = 3) regions of the prefrontal
cortex, or they received sham surgery (control group; n = 3).
Postoperative testing
Two weeks after surgery, all monkeys were tested for 32 trials/day
on a series of visual discriminations, in which advancement to the next
discrimination was contingent on reaching a performance level of 90%
correct in two consecutive sessions. The full test design is presented
in Table 1 (Experiment 2). A summary, however, is provided below.
(1) Retention of the pattern discrimination they had learned
immediately before surgery.
(2) A series of three novel compound discriminations or IDSs (IDS1,
IDS2, IDS3). All monkeys were assessed on their ability to learn a
compound visual discrimination comprising two novel dimensions: black lines superimposed over blue-filled shapes (Fig. 1c). To succeed, a monkey had to respond to one of the two
exemplars from the relevant dimension, ignoring both exemplars from the irrelevant dimension. Initially, six monkeys were presented with "shape" as the relevant dimension, as illustrated in Figure 1, and
the remaining three monkeys were presented with "lines" as the
relevant dimension.
(3) Two novel compound discriminations or IDSs and subsequent reversals
(IDS4, IDS4R, IDS5, IDS5R). In the discriminations requiring an IDS,
the monkey was required to learn which of two novel exemplars from the
previously relevant dimension was positively correlated with reward. In
the reversals, the exemplar that had been previously negatively
correlated with reward in discriminations IDS4 and IDS5, respectively,
became positively correlated with reward and vice versa. The exemplars
from the irrelevant dimension remained uncorrelated with reward.
This extended series of ID shifts and reversals was used in the present
experiment to ensure that all monkeys had "tuned in" to one
specific perceptual dimension, thereby enabling the acquisition of an
attentional set to be assessed fully.
(4) A probe test. After completion of the reversal of the fifth IDS
(IDS5R), the exemplars from the irrelevant dimension were replaced with two novel exemplars, whereas the exemplars from the
relevant dimension and the reward contingencies remained the same;
i.e., the exemplar from the relevant dimension that had been previously
correlated with reward continued to be correlated with reward. Once the
monkeys had reattained criterion they were returned to the original
compound discrimination before the next stage.
(5) An EDS. A new compound discrimination in which one of the two novel
exemplars from the previously irrelevant dimension became
positively correlated with reward, thus requiring a shift of
attentional set from one perceptual dimension of the compound stimulus
to another (Fig. 1d).
(6) A compound discrimination reversal (EDSR). The exemplar that had
been previously negatively correlated with reward in discrimination EDS
became positively correlated with reward and vice versa (Fig.
1e). The exemplars from the irrelevant dimension remained
uncorrelated with reward.
Again, the number of errors that were made before reaching criterion
were recorded for each discrimination.
Statistical methods
All behavioral data were analyzed using the CLR ANOVA statistical
package (Clear Lake Research). Whenever the distribution of these
variables violated the assumptions made for the ANOVA, an appropriate
transformation was used. Planned comparisons were made using simple
main effects.
Results
Histological assessment of lesion
Examination of the cresyl fast violet-stained sections of the
orbital and lateral prefrontal lesioned marmosets revealed that both
discrete prefrontal regions had been selectively destroyed by the
excitotoxin (Figs. 4 and
5). In all three marmosets of the orbital
prefrontal lesioned group, there was extensive damage, bilaterally, throughout the orbital region of prefrontal cortex (Figs. 4a, Fig. 5a,b). The most anterior limit of
the area of cell loss was just caudal to the frontal pole, whereas the
posterior limit extended just rostral to the putamen
(pm) (Fig. 4a). In one of the marmosets,
damage in the orbital region was confined to the supragranular layers
and layer IV and did not extend into the infragranular layers. The
cortex was spared in the adjacent lateral (lat) and medial
(m) prefrontal regions (Fig. 4a).
Fig. 4.
Schematic diagrams of a series of coronal sections
through the frontal lobe illustrating the site of the lesion of the
orbital (a) and lateral (b)
prefrontal cortices. The three different types of shading represent the
area of tissue that was damaged in all three marmosets (black
shading), in two of the three marmosets (dark
stippling), and in one marmoset only (pale
stippling) after an orbital (a) or a
lateral lesion (b). Orbital prefrontal cortex corresponds to areas 10-13 (marked orb on the
sections), and lateral prefrontal cortex corresponds to area 9 (marked
lat on the sections), as defined by Brodmann (1909) in
his description of the frontal cortex in the marmoset.
m, Medial prefrontal cortex; pm, premotor cortex; cn, caudate nucleus; p,
putamen).
[View Larger Version of this Image (43K GIF file)]
Fig. 5.
Low (a, c) and high (b,
d) power photomicrographs of cresyl violet-stained coronal
sections through an intermediate level of the frontal pole taken from a
representative marmoset from both the orbital (a, b) and
lateral (c, d) lesioned groups. The extensive cell loss
in the orbital (ORB) prefrontal cortex in a is in stark contrast to the dense layering of neurons
seen in the same region in c. Similarly, the almost
total loss of neurons in the lateral prefrontal cortex
(LAT) in c is in marked contrast to the dense layering of neurons seen in the same region in
a. The stars mark the same locations in
each pair of low and high power photomicrographs (e.g.,
a and b, c and
d); large arrowheads in b
and d mark the boundaries between the cortex and white
matter; small arrowheads in a mark the
lateral and medial boundaries of the orbital prefrontal lesion;
small arrowheads in c mark the medial and
dorsal boundaries of the lateral prefrontal lesion. Scale bars:
a, c, 1 mm; b, d, 400 µm. M, Medial prefrontal cortex; PM,
premotor cortex.
[View Larger Version of this Image (107K GIF file)]
In the lateral prefrontal lesioned group, in two of the three lesioned
marmosets there was a near total loss of cells, bilaterally, in the
lateral prefrontal cortex extending from the frontal pole, anteriorly,
to the level of the anterior limit of the caudate nucleus
(cn), posteriorly (Figs. 4b, 5c,d).
However, in the third marmoset, although damage to the right side of
the lateral prefrontal cortex was similar in extent to that seen
bilaterally in the other two lateral prefrontal lesioned marmosets,
damage to the left side was less extensive (Fig. 4b).
Although there was a total loss of cells within the left lateral
prefrontal cortex at the frontal pole, there was some sparing of cells
in the supragranular layers of the lateral prefrontal cortex more
posteriorly. In all three lateral prefrontal lesioned marmosets, the
cortex in the adjacent premotor areas (pm) and
orbital areas (orb) was spared (Fig. 4b).
Behavioral effects
Retention test. Preoperatively, the monkeys that were
scheduled to receive either quinolinic acid or phosphate buffer vehicle into the lateral or orbital regions of prefrontal cortex did not differ
in their ability to learn a simple visual pattern discrimination and
reversal (F < 1) (see Table
4 for mean ± SEM).
Table 4.
Mean scores (±SEM) for Experiment 2
| Discrimination |
Mean number of
errors to criterion ± SEM
|
| Control |
LAT lesion |
ORB lesion
|
|
| All preoperative discriminations |
174.0
± 55.0 |
143.8 ± 46.6 |
156.2 ± 31.1 |
| Retention test
(P2) |
8.7 ± 2.5 |
12.3 ± 4.0 |
2.7 ± 1.8
|
| Intradimensional shift 1 (IDS1) |
34.3 ± 4.7 |
34.0
± 11.2 |
37.3 ± 9.2 |
| Intradimensional shift 2 (IDS2) |
60.0 ± 12.3 |
51.7 ± 7.8 |
50.3 ± 9.6
|
| Intradimensional shift 3 (IDS3) |
18.3 ± 2.2 |
20.0
± 3.2 |
20.7 ± 2.5 |
| Intradimensional shift 4 (IDS4) |
5.0
± 3.9 |
0.0 ± 0.0 |
3.0 ± 3.0 |
| Compound reversal 1 (IDS4R) |
25.0 ± 4.6 |
28.0 ± 5.5 |
47.3 ± 5.5*
|
| Intradimensional shift 5 (IDS5) |
3.7 ± 2.3 |
2.7
± 1.6 |
4.7 ± 3.6 |
| Compound reversal 2 (IDS5R) |
9.7
± 2.2 |
9.0 ± 2.5 |
10.3 ± 1.6 |
| Extradimensional shift
(EDS) |
18.3 ± 4.1 |
40.7 ± 3.6* |
22.3 ± 2.5
|
| Compound reversal 3 (EDS1R) |
14.3 ± 3.3 |
14.3
± 2.2 |
15.7 ± 2.5 |
|
|
*
p < 0.001.
|
|
Postoperatively, although there was a trend for the orbital prefrontal
lesioned monkeys to make fewer errors than either controls or lateral
prefrontal lesioned marmosets in regaining criterion on the retention
test (see Table 4 for mean ± SEM), this did not reach the 5%
level of significance (F(2,6) = 3.59;
p = 0.09).
Acquisition of a novel attentional set. There was no effect
of either lesion on the acquisition of the first novel compound visual
discrimination (IDS1) presented postoperatively (see Table 4 for
mean ± SEM). Similarly, there was no effect of either lesion on
the acquisition of the subsequent series of four novel discriminations (IDS2, IDS3, IDS4, IDS5), in which the same perceptual dimension was
relevant throughout (Fig. 6). Apart from
a small increase in the number of errors made by all monkeys on IDS2,
progressively fewer errors were then made across the remaining four
discriminations, indicative that all marmosets developed an attentional
set to the relevant perceptual dimension. However, neither lesion
affected the ability to acquire such an attentional set. ANOVA of
errors to criterion for all five novel discriminations revealed that there was a main effect of Discrimination
(F(3,18) = 44.68; p < 0.001),
but no effect of Lesion (F < 1) and no Lesion × Discrimination interaction (F < 1).
Fig. 6.
Mean number of errors (±SEM) made by
sham-operated controls (open bars)
(n = 3), lateral prefrontal lesioned marmosets
(pale hatched bars) (n = 3),
and orbital prefrontal lesioned marmosets (dark hatched
bars) (n = 3) to reach criterion on a
series of five IDSs.
[View Larger Version of this Image (33K GIF file)]
Compound discrimination reversals (IDS4R and IDS5R).
Marmosets with lesions of the orbital prefrontal cortex made nearly
twice as many errors as either lateral prefrontal lesioned monkeys or sham-operated controls on the first reversal (IDS4R) (see Table 4 for
mean ± SEM). Although both lesioned and sham-operated control monkeys showed marked perseveration on IDS4R by continuing to respond
to the previously correct exemplar for many trials, the extent of this
perseveration was far greater in the orbital prefrontal lesioned
monkeys than in the sham-operated controls or the lateral prefrontal
lesioned monkeys. However, the deficit seen in the orbital prefrontal
lesioned marmosets was apparent only on the first reversal, with no
differences in reversal learning between the three groups on the second
discrimination reversal (IDS5R) (see Table 4 for mean ± SEM).
ANOVA of the total errors to reach criterion on the first (IDS4R) and
second (IDS5R) discrimination reversals showed a main effect of
Reversal (F(1,6) = 185.41; p < 0.001) and a significant Lesion × Reversal interaction
(F(2,6) = 14.70; p < 0.01).
Further analysis of the simple main effects showed that there was a
significant effect of the lesion on the first reversal
(F(2,9) = 13.77; p < 0.01), but
no significant effect of the lesion on the second reversal
(F < 1). Using the same criteria for defining
perseverative errors as in Experiment 1, an ANOVA of the square root
transformed data of the types of errors made on the first reversal
(IDS4R) revealed a main effect of Error type (perseverative or
nonperseverative) (F(1,6) = 318.50;
p < 0.001), Lesion (F(2,6) = 41.13; p < 0.001), and a significant Lesion × Error type interaction (F(2,6) = 18.34; p < 0.01). Further analysis of the simple main effects
showed that the orbital prefrontal lesioned marmosets made
significantly more perseverative errors than controls
(F(2,12) = 56.64; p < 0.001),
but did not differ from controls in the number of nonperseverative errors (F < 1).
Probe test. The introduction of novel exemplars of the
irrelevant dimension had no effect on performance in control, lateral prefrontal, or orbital prefrontal lesioned monkeys; in all three groups
the monkeys continued to respond to the previously correct exemplar at
the 90% correct criterion level. A comparison of the errors made on
the previous test session when all monkeys were performing at the 90%
criterion level revealed no effect of the probe (F < 1) or the lesion (F < 1), and no interaction of the lesion with the probe (F < 1).
EDS and reversal. All monkeys took longer to acquire the
discrimination requiring an EDS compared with the preceding
discrimination requiring an IDS, again confirming that all monkeys had
indeed developed an attentional set and therefore, were required to
shift attentional set at the EDS stage of the test. In agreement with Experiment 1, although the performance of monkeys with lesions of the
lateral prefrontal cortex was equivalent to both controls and monkeys
with lesions of the orbital prefrontal cortex on a discrimination
requiring an IDS, their performance was significantly inferior to both
of the other groups on the discrimination requiring an EDS. Monkeys
with lesions of the lateral prefrontal cortex made nearly three times
as many errors as either orbital prefrontal lesioned monkeys or
sham-operated controls (Table 4). ANOVA of the total errors to reach
criterion on the EDS and preceding IDS (IDS5) showed a main effect of
Lesion (F(2,6) = 5.87; p < 0.05), a main effect of Shift (F(1,6) = 343.70;
p < 0.001), and a significant Lesion × Shift
interaction (F(2,6) = 34.98; p < 0.001). Further analysis of the simple main effects showed that the
lateral prefrontal lesioned marmosets were selectively impaired at the
ED shift stage of the task (F(2,8) = 20.67;
p < 0.001). Moreover, there was evidence in this
experiment that the impairment in the monkeys with lateral prefrontal
lesions may have been the result of perseveration to the previously
relevant dimension. As in Experiment 1, two of the three sham-operated
monkeys and all three monkeys with orbital prefrontal lesions responded
repeatedly to one of the exemplars (five or six consecutive responses;
p < 0.05) from the previously relevant dimension in
the first session of the EDS. A similar pattern of responding was seen
in all three monkeys with lateral prefrontal lesions, except that they
made seven or eight consecutive responses (p < 0.01) and were more likely to repeat this series of responses. Monkeys
were given a score of 1 for every run of five or six responses and 2 for every run of seven or eight responses, and a comparison of their
performance on the immediately preceding IDS and the subsequent EDS
showed that all monkeys responded to the previously relevant dimension
at the EDS stage (main effect of Shift: F(1,6) = 54; p < 0.003) and there was a nonsignificant trend
for the lesioned monkeys to exhibit this behavior more than controls or
monkeys with orbital prefrontal lesions (Lesion × Shift
interaction: F(2,6) = 4.5; p = 0.064). By contrast, there was no effect of either lesion on the
subsequent reversal of this visual discrimination requiring an ED
shift (F < 1).
To summarize, neither lesion of the lateral or orbital regions of the
prefrontal cortex impaired the ability of the marmoset to acquire an
attentional set of the relevant perceptual dimension. However, in
agreement with experiment 1, lesions of the orbital prefrontal cortex
impaired performance selectively on the first but not subsequent
reversals, whereas lesions of the lateral prefrontal cortex impaired
performance selectively on the EDS.
DISCUSSION
The present findings demonstrate that although lesions of the
orbital but not the lateral prefrontal cortex impaired the ability of
marmosets to reverse a stimulus-reward association within a particular
perceptual dimension, (e.g., shapes), lesions of the lateral rather
than the orbital prefrontal cortex impaired the ability to shift an
attentional set from one perceptual dimension to another (e.g., shapes
to lines). These impairments were restricted to the first occasion that
such shifts in responding were required. Performance on subsequent
reversals of stimulus-reward associations or on an additional shift of
an attentional set was unaffected. The finding that neither lesion
disrupted the ability of marmosets to perform compound visual
discriminations per se or to develop (Exp. 2) or maintain (Exp. 1) an
attentional set toward one particular perceptual dimension highlights
further the specificity of the deficit to one of a disruption of
inhibitory control mechanisms.
Inhibitory control versus on-line processing
Traditionally, impairments in inhibitory control shown by patients
with damage to the prefrontal cortex on tests such as the Wisconsin
Card Sort Test (WCST) have been accounted for in terms of deficits in
inhibiting an "attentional set" (Milner, 1964 ; Mishkin, 1964 ;
Cicerone and Lazur, 1983). However, more recently Goldman-Rakic (1987)
has attempted to incorporate such impairments into a working memory
account of prefrontal function, suggesting that the impairments in
inhibitory control may reflect an underlying deficit in the ability to
hold information on line in working memory (Goldman-Rakic, 1987 ). The
results of the present study cannot be easily accommodated by this
particular working memory theory of prefrontal function, because all
the discriminations could be solved using short-term memory but only
those involving inhibition of a previously acquired response were
impaired. It can be argued that the memory load needed to perform an
IDS was smaller than that required to perform an EDS in Experiment 1, because the monkeys had already acquired an attentional set to a
particular perceptual dimension. Therefore, unlike the EDS, they could
ignore a proportion of the available stimulus cues, i.e., exemplars
from the irrelevant dimension. However, because the lesioned monkeys in
Experiment 2 had no previous experience with the compound stimuli, it
follows that the first discrimination after surgery was performed by
all monkeys before acquiring an attentional set, and hence the working
memory requirements were equivalent to those of an EDS. A more
parsimonious explanation is that the impairments were attributable to a
loss of inhibitory control at two different levels of cognitive
processing: affective processing (after lesions of the orbital
prefrontal cortex) and attentional selection (after lesions of the
lateral prefrontal cortex). That neither lesion disrupted the ability
to learn compound discriminations per se or to acquire an attentional
set demonstrates further the disinhibitory nature of these deficits,
thus ruling out more general roles for these regions in processes of
response selection based on emotional and higher-order attentional
factors.
Whether other regions of the prefrontal cortex are involved more
generally in response selection based on emotional and higher-order attentional factors is unclear. Certainly lesions involving areas 13, 14, and 32 on the ventromedial and medial surfaces in macaque monkeys
impair the ability to associate reward with particular visual stimuli
(Iversen and Mishkin, 1970 ; Gaffan and Murray, 1990 ; Gaffan et al.,
1993 ), a deficit similar to that seen after damage to the amygdala
(Gaffan and Murray, 1990 ), with which these regions of prefrontal
cortex are heavily interconnected (Jones and Powell, 1970 ; Nauta, 1971 ;
Amaral et al., 1992 ). Whether the prefrontal cortex is also involved in
the ability to acquire an attentional set is less clear. A study by
Iversen and Mishkin (1970) did show that lesions restricted to areas 13 and 14 on the orbital surface abolished the improvement in performance
that is normally seen across a series of visual discrimination
reversals, an impairment that could have reflected the failure of such
an attentional mechanism (Mackintosh and Little, 1969 ). Certainly, these regions are interconnected with the inferotemporal cortex (Ungerleider et al., 1989 ), which has been implicated specifically in
visual selective attention (Butter, 1969 ; Gross et al., 1971 ).
The importance of novelty
The finding that the impairments in inhibitory control were
present only on the first occasion that shifts of responding were required suggests that the prefrontal cortex provides inhibitory control particularly in novel situations. Lesioning the orbital prefrontal cortex only impaired performance on the first
discrimination reversal, regardless of whether the first reversal was
presented before (Exp. 2) or after (Exp. 1) the EDS stage of the task.
This is consistent with previous results in which the perseverative responding induced by lesions of the orbitofrontal cortex in rhesus monkeys was restricted to only the first reversal of a series of
reversals (Iversen and Mishkin, 1970 ). Similarly, lesions of the
lateral region of prefrontal cortex in the present study only impaired
performance on the first discrimination requiring an EDS. There was no
impairment on the second EDS, which required monkeys to re-engage a
previously established attentional set. It might be argued that this
second EDS would be a relatively insensitive test, because not only
have the monkeys already been exposed to an EDS once, but also they are
shifting back to a dimension that has been relevant in the recent past.
However, this ability to re-engage a previously relevant attentional
set has been shown to be disrupted by 6-hydroxydopamine lesions of the
entire head and body of the caudate nucleus, whereas the same lesion
does not appear to disrupt the first EDS (Roberts et al., 1994 ). This double dissociation indicates that the restriction of the shifting deficit to the first EDS in the present study is not caused by task
insensitivity. Rather, these findings suggest that the lateral and
orbital prefrontal cortex may no longer be necessary for the subsequent
application of algorithms or rules underlying reversal learning and
attentional set-shifting within the context of a specific task when
these have already been established by previous training.
Functional organization within the prefrontal cortex
This double dissociation between the behavioral effects of lesions
of the lateral and orbital prefrontal cortex in the marmoset on
discrimination reversal learning and attentional set-shifting provides
new insight into the functional organization of the prefrontal cortex.
It suggests that distinct regions of the prefrontal cortex carry out
independent but complementary forms of cognitive processing of complex
visual stimuli in changing environmental circumstances. Thus, regions
within the orbital prefrontal cortex in marmosets enable the rapid
reversal of affective associations for specific visual stimuli, whereas
the higher-order shifting of attention between supraordinate features
of visual stimuli, such as their perceptual dimensions, is mediated by
regions within the lateral prefrontal cortex. These findings run
contrary to traditional theories of prefrontal function in which
inhibitory control has been associated primarily with orbital
prefrontal cortex in monkeys (Mishkin, 1964 ; Fuster, 1985 ). They
suggest instead that inhibitory control may be operating across a
number of distinct functional regions within the prefrontal cortex.
Additional support for this hypothesis comes from ablation (Diamond and
Goldman-Rakic, 1989 ) and electrophysiological recording (Funahashi et
al., 1993 ) studies in rhesus monkeys, which demonstrate that inhibitory
control mechanisms operate together with on-line processing within the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to control performance on the spatial
delayed response task. These findings also run contrary to original
theories of selective attention and discrimination learning in animals (Sutherland and Mackintosh, 1971 ), which suggested that there was a
hierarchical relationship between the selection of an appropriate perceptual dimension and the affective "tagging" of particular stimuli within that dimension as rewarded or not. The double
dissociation between the behavioral effects of lateral and orbital
lesions on set-shifting and reversal learning in the present study
suggests instead that these processes occur in parallel. Finally, these findings also provide an explanation for the apparent discrepancy between human and nonhuman primate studies with respect to the anatomical locus of inhibitory control. Thus, the impairment in shifting categories on the WCST that has been associated with damage to
dorsolateral but not orbital prefrontal cortex in humans (Milner, 1964 ;
Eslinger and Damasio, 1985 ; Shallice and Burgess, 1991 ) is similar to
the impairment in shifting an attentional set described in the present
study that is associated with damage to the lateral rather than orbital
prefrontal cortex in marmosets.
Two other modes of organization have been postulated to occur within
the prefrontal cortex in addition to the one suggested here. The first,
sensory-specific processing, is based on findings from
electrophysiological (Wilson et al., 1993 ) and functional neuroimaging
(Courtney et al., 1996 ) studies and suggests that the prefrontal cortex
is involved in the general process of holding representations of
stimulus information on-line, with independent analysis of visual and
spatial information in adjacent regions. The second, based on evidence
from functional neuroimaging and ablation studies, suggests that
neighboring regions of dorsal prefrontal cortex make distinct, possibly
hierarchical, contributions to memory that differ in terms of the
nature of the processing of the information that is held in posterior
association cortex (e.g., simple retrieval vs monitoring of
information) (two-stage theory of Petrides, 1996 ; Owen et al., 1996 ).
It is unclear which of these positions is best supported by the present
data, which in some respects are compatible with either. Thus, we have
shown that mechanisms of response inhibition are present in distinct cognitive domains for affective as well as higher-order processing of
visual stimuli. This organization is not inconsistent with the
existence of sensory-specific domains, although the nature of the
impairments seen in the present study are inconsistent with a
generalized impairment in on-line processing. Indeed, they support the
recent findings of Rushworth et al. (1997) that emphasize the
importance of the prefrontal cortex in response selection beyond those
situations in which stimuli must be held on-line. The present findings
are also consistent with the two-stage account of Petrides (1996) in
that they provide evidence for functionally distinct processing
domains. They differ from this account, however, in arguing for the
existence of parallel processing of affective and higher-order
information in different regions of the prefrontal cortex rather than
hierarchical processing proposed in the two-stage account. Indeed, in
agreement with our own thesis these results have been taken to support
the role of different regions of prefrontal cortex in the selection and
control of action based on lower-order and higher-order rules (Wise et
al., 1996 ).
FOOTNOTES
Received June 16, 1997; revised Aug. 25, 1997; accepted Sept. 11, 1997.
This work was supported by a University Research Fellowship Grant from
the Royal Society (A.C.R.) and also by a Programme Grant from the
Wellcome Trust (T.W.R., B. J. Everitt, A.C.R., B. J. Sahakian). Dr. R. Dias received a studentship from the Medical Research
Council. We thank Dr. R. M. Ridley for supplying the marmosets,
Ms. C. Morrison and Ms. H. Sweet for preparation of histological
material, and Mr. J. Bashford and Mr. I. Bolton for photographic
assistance.
Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Angela C. Roberts, Department
of Anatomy, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2
3DY, UK.
Dr. Dias's present address: School of Psychology, University of Wales,
Cardiff, P.O. Box 901, Cardiff CF1 3YG, UK.
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M. D. Barense, M. T. Fox, and M. G. Baxter
Aged Rats Are Impaired on an Attentional Set-Shifting Task Sensitive to Medial Frontal Cortex Damage in Young Rats
Learn. Mem.,
July 1, 2002;
9(4):
191 - 201.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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D. H. Salat, J. A. Kaye, and J. S. Janowsky
Greater Orbital Prefrontal Volume Selectively Predicts Worse Working Memory Performance in Older Adults
Cereb Cortex,
May 1, 2002;
12(5):
494 - 505.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
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R. B. Scott, J. Harrison, C. Boulton, J. Wilson, R. Gregory, S. Parkin, P. G. Bain, C. Joint, J. Stein, and T. Z. Aziz
Global attentional-executive sequelae following surgical lesions to globus pallidus interna
Brain,
March 1, 2002;
125(3):
562 - 574.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
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H.S. Crofts, J.W. Dalley, P. Collins, J.C.M. Van Denderen, B.J. Everitt, T.W. Robbins, and A.C. Roberts
Differential Effects of 6-OHDA Lesions of the Frontal Cortex and Caudate Nucleus on the Ability to Acquire an Attentional Set
Cereb Cortex,
November 1, 2001;
11(11):
1015 - 1026.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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S. A. Bunge, K. N. Ochsner, J. E. Desmond, G. H. Glover, and J. D. E. Gabrieli
Prefrontal regions involved in keeping information in and out of mind
Brain,
October 1, 2001;
124(10):
2074 - 2086.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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J. A. Parkinson, H. S. Crofts, M. McGuigan, D. L. Tomic, B. J. Everitt, and A. C. Roberts
The Role of the Primate Amygdala in Conditioned Reinforcement
J. Neurosci.,
October 1, 2001;
21(19):
7770 - 7780.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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Y. Nagahama, T. Okada, Y. Katsumi, T. Hayashi, H. Yamauchi, C. Oyanagi, J. Konishi, H. Fukuyama, and H. Shibasaki
Dissociable Mechanisms of Attentional Control within the Human Prefrontal Cortex
Cereb Cortex,
January 1, 2001;
11(1):
85 - 92.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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C. R. Savage, T. Deckersbach, S. Heckers, A. D. Wagner, D. L. Schacter, N. M. Alpert, A. J. Fischman, and S. L. Rauch
Prefrontal regions supporting spontaneous and directed application of verbal learning strategies: Evidence from PET
Brain,
January 1, 2001;
124(1):
219 - 231.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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A. Bechara, D. Tranel, and H. Damasio
Characterization of the decision-making deficit of patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions
Brain,
November 1, 2000;
123(11):
2189 - 2202.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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W. F. Asaad, G. Rainer, and E. K. Miller
Task-Specific Neural Activity in the Primate Prefrontal Cortex
J Neurophysiol,
July 1, 2000;
84(1):
451 - 459.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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J. M. Birrell and V. J. Brown
Medial Frontal Cortex Mediates Perceptual Attentional Set Shifting in the Rat
J. Neurosci.,
June 1, 2000;
20(11):
4320 - 4324.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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D. Durstewitz, J. K. Seamans, and T. J. Sejnowski
Dopamine-Mediated Stabilization of Delay-Period Activity in a Network Model of Prefrontal Cortex
J Neurophysiol,
March 1, 2000;
83(3):
1733 - 1750.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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A.C. Roberts and J.D. Wallis
Inhibitory Control and Affective Processing in the Prefrontal Cortex: Neuropsychological Studies in the Common Marmoset
Cereb Cortex,
March 1, 2000;
10(3):
252 - 262.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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G. Northoff, A. Richter, M. Gessner, F. Schlagenhauf, J. Fell, F. Baumgart, T. Kaulisch, R. Kotter, K. E. Stephan, A. Leschinger, et al.
Functional Dissociation between Medial and Lateral Prefrontal Cortical Spatiotemporal Activation in Negative and Positive Emotions: A Combined fMRI/MEG Study
Cereb Cortex,
January 1, 2000;
10(1):
93 - 107.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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S. Konishi, M. Kawazu, I. Uchida, H. Kikyo, I. Asakura, and Y. Miyashita
Contribution of Working Memory to Transient Activation in Human Inferior Prefrontal Cortex during Performance of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test
Cereb Cortex,
October 1, 1999;
9(7):
745 - 753.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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S. Rahman, B. J. Sahakian, J. R. Hodges, R. D. Rogers, and T. W. Robbins
Specific cognitive deficits in mild frontal variant frontotemporal dementia
Brain,
August 1, 1999;
122(8):
1469 - 1493.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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S. Konishi, K. Nakajima, I. Uchida, H. Kikyo, M. Kameyama, and Y. Miyashita
Common inhibitory mechanism in human inferior prefrontal cortex revealed by event-related functional MRI
Brain,
May 1, 1999;
122(5):
981 - 991.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
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