Functional role of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in decision making

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To make deliberate decisions, we have to utilize detailed information about the environment and our internal states. The ventral visual pathway provides detailed information on object identity, including color and shape, to the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). The VLPFC also receives motivational and emotional information from the orbitofrontal cortex and subcortical areas, and computes the behavioral significance of external events; this information can be used for elaborate decision making or design of goal-directed behavior. In this review, we discuss recent advances that are revealing the neural mechanisms that underlie the coding of behavioral significance in the VLPFC, and the functional roles of these mechanisms in decision making and action programming in the brain.

Introduction

Decision making enables humans to select appropriate actions in given circumstances. Some decisions can be made with little effort; others require careful consideration of options. When we select an appropriate action based on visual information, at least two neural pathways provide cues for decision making: the ventral pathway, from the primary visual cortex (V1) to the inferotemporal cortex, mediates object recognition and contributes to the formation of our cognitive world; the dorsal pathway, from V1 to the parietal cortex, determines the spatial layout of objects and computes the disposition of objects for actions [1, 2, 3]. Anatomical data further reveal that the inferotemporal cortex has many efferents to the prefrontal cortex, especially to the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) [4, 5]. By contrast, the parietal cortex projects primarily to premotor cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) [6, 7]. These projections to the prefrontal cortex, which are crucial for decision making, are referred to as the extended ventral and extended dorsal pathways. Whereas the extended dorsal pathway can quickly transform sensory information into motor commands in a reactive and automated fashion, the extended ventral pathway, which carries detailed information about the circumstances surrounding a decision, provides flexibility in decision making [8, 9••]. In this article, we review experimental data from the past two years that are revealing the mechanisms that underlie decision making in the extended ventral pathway, and in particular the functional roles of the VLPFC.

Section snippets

Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and behavioral significance

The lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is thought to contribute to numerous cognitive functions as an interface between sensory areas and motor areas [10, 11, 12, 13]. The most popular view credits the LPFC with mediating working memory functions [14, 15, 16]. More specifically, the tight connections between the ventral pathway and VLPFC and between the dorsal pathway and DLPFC, combined with the respective ‘what’ and ‘where’ interpretation of these ventral and dorsal pathways, prompted

Integration of cognitive and motivational information

Our decision making depends on motivational state as well as cognition. The LPFC, particularly the VLPFC, also receives projections from the orbitofrontal cortex and subcortical areas such as the midbrain and amygdala [35, 36], which are involved in processing motivational and emotional information [37, 38, 39]. Thus, the VLPFC might integrate cognitive and motivational information to guide flexible goal-directed behavior (see also review by Watanabe, in this issue). Many studies show

Functional roles of the VLPFC in decision making

How is the output from the VLPFC used in the brain? The major upstream destination of output from the VLPFC is the premotor cortex, which in turn sends projection to M1 [24, 31]. The VLPFC also has dense interconnections with the DLPFC, which also projects to the premotor cortex. In the DLPFC and premotor cortex, VLPFC output that relates to behavioral significance could be integrated with action commands from the extended dorsal pathway to finalize motor decisions.

The VLPFC also has feedback

Conclusion

The VLPFC receives detailed sensory information about circumstances from the ventral pathway, and motivational and emotional information from the orbitofrontal cortex and subcortical areas. Through the integration of this cognitive and motivational information, the VLPFC computes adaptive codes on the basis of behavioral significance, which leads to deliberate decision making or goal-directed behavior. The output from the VLPFC can cause information in other areas to adapt in response to given

References and recommended reading

Papers of particular interest, published within the period of review, have been highlighted as:

  • • of special interest

  • •• of outstanding interest

Acknowledgement

We thank J Lauwereyns for critical comments. Our work is supported by the Human Frontier Science Program (MS), by Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology (MS), and by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas (MS) and Tamagawa University COE (MS) from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture.

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