title: Frontal lobe activation during object alternation acquisition.
abstract: Object alternation (OA) tasks are increasingly used as probes of ventral prefrontal functioning in humans. In the most common variant of the OA task, subjects must deduce the task rule through trial-and-error learning. To examine the neural correlates of OA acquisition, the authors measured regional cerebral blood flow with positron emission tomography while subjects acquired an OA task, performed a sensorimotor control condition, or performed already learned and practiced OA. As expected, activations emerged in the ventral prefrontal cortex. However, activation of the presupplemental motor area was more closely associated with successful task performance. The authors suggest that areas beyond the ventral prefrontal cortex are critically involved in OA acquisition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: David H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Zald
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Clayton
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Curtis
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Laura A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Chernitsky
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit.
authors.forename: José V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Pardo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D010104:Oxygen Radioisotopes / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
chemical_list: D010104:Oxygen Radioisotopes