Callosal window between prefrontal cortices: cognitive interaction to retrieve long-term memory.
A perceptual image can be recalled from memory without sensory stimulation. However, the neural origin of memory retrieval remains unsettled. To examine whether memory retrieval can be regulated by top-down processes originating from the prefrontal cortex, a visual associative memory task was introduced into the partial split-brain paradigm in monkeys. Long-term memory acquired through stimulus-stimulus association did not transfer via the anterior corpus callosum, a key part interconnecting prefrontal cortices. Nonetheless, when a visual cue was presented to one hemisphere, the anterior callosum could instruct the other hemisphere to retrieve the correct stimulus specified by the cue. Thus, although visual long-term memory is stored in the temporal cortex, memory retrieval is under the executive control of the prefrontal cortex.
Department of Physiology, University of Tokyo School of Medicine, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan. hasegawa@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp
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I
Hasegawa
T
T
Fukushima
T
T
Ihara
Y
Y
Miyashita
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D007858:Learning; D008251:Macaca; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012438:Saccades; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology