Combining Lesion and Functional Imaging Approaches to Explore Prefrontal Functions
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1
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience , United Kingdom
Understanding the functional organization of the prefrontal cortex and the specific roles of its distinct subregions (e.g., dorsolateral or rostral areas) is an essential issue in cognitive neuroscience. Functional neuroimaging has provided a large amount of data and influential theories regarding these questions. In order to draw stronger inferences, human lesion studies, which indicate the critical regions within the activated networks, are crucial to complement activation approaches. Recently, the development of voxel-based lesion-deficit mapping techniques allows better integration of lesion studies with functional imaging ones, and can also provide data that functional imaging cannot. Accordingly, we have developed a voxel-based lesion method, called Anatomo-Clinical Overlapping Maps (AnaCOM), specifically to assess frontal functions.
We have performed several studies using this new method (AnaCOM), to explore the functional organization and the role of specific areas of the prefrontal cortex in human behavioral adaptation. In a first study [1], functional and lesion methods were combined, using the same working memory tasks across both. AnaCOM identified different critical sub-regions for distinct aspects of working memory within the networks activated during neuroimaging. These converging data argue in favor of a hybrid model of organization of the prefrontal cortex in which domain-oriented and cross-domain executive-dependent regions co-exist, reconciling previously divergent data. In addition, voxel-based lesion mapping methods may be especially useful to understand the crucial role of the rostral prefrontal cortex, which is activated by a wide range of tasks, even simple ones, in functional imaging. In further studies using specific cognitive tests, AnaCOM allowed us to determine distinct and critical aspects of behavioral adaptation for which an intact rostral prefrontal region is necessary [2].
In addition to the advance in cognitive neuroscience knowledge, voxel-based lesion mapping techniques provide more precise information to neurologists and neurosurgeons about the expected cognitive consequences following particular prefrontal lesions or their removal.
References
1. Volle et al. Cerebral Cortex 2008, 18, 2460-2469
2. Burgess et al. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience 2009, 27, 493-506
Conference:
The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes, Toronto, Canada, 22 Mar - 26 Mar, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Symposium 6: Neuropsychology
Citation:
Volle
E
(2010). Combining Lesion and Functional Imaging Approaches to Explore Prefrontal Functions.
Conference Abstract:
The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.14.00023
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Received:
25 Jun 2010;
Published Online:
25 Jun 2010.
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Correspondence:
Emmanuelle Volle, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, London, United Kingdom, e.volle@ucl.ac.uk