The Neurobiology of the Prefrontal Cortex: Anatomy, Evolution, and the Origin of Insight

by Richard E. Passingham, Steven P. Wise

Overview

The prefrontal cortex makes up almost a third of the human brain, and it expanded dramatically during primate evolution.

The Neurobiology of the Prefrontal Cortex presents a new theory about its fundamental function. In this important new book, the authors argue that primate-specific parts of the prefrontal cortex evolved to reduce errors in foraging choices, so that our ancestors could overcome periodic food shortages. This evolutionary development laid the foundation for working out problems in our imagination, which resulted in the origin of insights that allow humans to avoid errors entirely, at least at times.

In the book, the authors detail which parts of the prefrontal cortex evolved exclusively in primates, how its connections explain why the prefrontal cortex alone can perform its function, and why other parts of the brain cannot do what the prefrontal cortex does. Based on an analysis of its evolutionary history, the book uses evidence from lesion, imaging, and cell-recording experiments to argue that the primate prefrontal cortex generates goals from a current behavioural context and that it can do so on the basis of single events. As a result, the prefrontal cortex uses the attentive control of behaviour to augment an older general-purpose learning system, one that evolved very early in the history of animals. This older system learns slowly and cumulatively over many experiences based on reinforcement. The authors argue that a new learning system evolved in primates at a particular time and place in their history, that it did so to decrease the errors inherent in the older learning system, and that severe volatility of food resources provided the driving force for these developments.

Written by two leading brain scientists, the Neurobiology of the Prefrontal Cortex is an important contribution to our understanding of the evolution and functioning of the human brain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199552917
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/08/2012
Series:	Oxford Psychology Series , #50
Pages:	422
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 9.70(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Richard Passingham did his undergraduate degree at Oxford University (BA, 1966), and then did a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology.at the Institute of Psychiatry in London (M.Sc. 1967). Hthen undertook his Ph.D. at the University of London (1971). Afterwards he returned to Oxford University as a Research Officer on a MRC Programme Grant. He was made a University Lecturer in the Department of Experimental Psychology in 1976 and a Fellow of Wadham College in the same year. He was made an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the MRC Cyclotron Unit at the Hammersmith Hospital in 1991 and an Honorary Principal at the Wellcome Centre for Neuroimaging in London in 1996. In 1993 he became an ad hominem Reader in Cognitive Neuroscience at Oxford University and became a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in 1997. Richard was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2009 and Fellow of the American Psychological Society in 2010.

Steven P. Wise received a B.A. in biology from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in biology from Washington University in St. Louis. After a brief period of postdoctoral study, he had a 30-year career as a neurophysiologist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr Wise served as the Chief of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the National Institute of Mental Health and Chief of the Section on Neurophysiology of the Laboratory of Systems Neuroscience.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction2. Evolution of the primate prefrontal cortex3. Medial prefrontal cortex: choosing actions based on outcomes4. Orbital prefrontal cortex: choosing objects based on outcomes5. Caudal prefrontal cortex: searching for goals6. Dorsal prefrontal cortex: generating goals based on recent events7. DT Ventral prefrontal cortex: generating goals based on visual and auditory contexts8. DT Prefrontal cortex as a whole: generating goals from current contexts and events9. Human prefrontal cortex: generating goals from instructions and imagination10. Conclusions

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Christopher J Graver, PhD, ABPP-CN(Madigan Healthcare System)
Description: The brain is incredibly complex and there are still many questions regarding functional neuroanatomy. Of the brain areas, the frontal lobe is the most recently evolved, but perhaps the most complex. This book further explores this pertinent area from cellular, neurophysiological, and neuropsychological perspectives in what started out as an update to a previous edition, but had such radical changes that an entirely new book was deemed more appropriate.
Purpose: The aim is to provide a current understanding of the prefrontal cortex within an evolutionary framework and argue that the driving forces behind such an evolution can be traced back to a need for reducing errors in foraging during situations where food availability was volatile.
Audience: The book would be of interest to neuroscientists, neurologists, neuropsychologists, and psychiatrists. It would be right at home as recommended reading to students of these disciplines in a specialty neuroanatomy course. The authors are accomplished researchers in the field who are making productive use of their retirement to reexamine the state of the science.
Features: This book presents an introduction to the prefrontal cortex and makes a case for the evolutionary trajectory that led to current primate neuroanatomy. Subsequent chapters explore the various sections of the prefrontal cortex in the context of neurophysiological and neuropsychological research. There are discussions of connections with other brain areas and their functional relevance, as well as comparisons to other animal models. While certainly well written with plenty of scientific support, the book's standout feature is the incisive and balanced viewpoint provided by the authors. They argue their point ardently, but always in a fair and professional manner, realizing limitations and acknowledging unknowns. Each chapter has an abstract and a summary, along with well-organized subsections that are frequently summarized as well. Copious graphs, charts, and illustrations accompany the text, and the references are current up to within a year of publication.
Assessment: Although the aim of the book, to present an evolutionary argument for the prefrontal cortex as a tool to improve foraging, is rather narrow, the information clearly has much wider applicability. Whether or not readers ultimately agree with the viewpoints of the authors, they get a comprehensive and balanced presentation of the current science on prefrontal cortical function.

Doody's Review Service

"[Readers] get a comprehensive and balanced presentation of the current science on prefrontal cortical function."
— Christopher J. Graver, PhD, ABPP-CN, Doody's

From the Publisher