Contributions of prefrontal cortex to recognition memory: Electrophysiological and behavioral evidence

Author(s): Knight, R. T.

Journal/Book: Neuropsychology. 1999; 13: 750 First St NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242, USA. Amer Psychological Assoc. 155-170.

Abstract: To clarify the involvement of prefrontal cortex in episodic memory, behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures of recognition were examined in patients with dorsolateral prefrontal lesions. In controls, recognition accuracy and the ERP old-new effect declined with increasing retention intervals. Although frontal patients showed a higher false-alarm rate to new words, their hit rate to old words and ERP old-new effect were intact, suggesting that recognition processes were not fundamentally altered by prefrontal damage. The opposite behavioral pattern was observed in patients with hippocampal lesions: a normal false-alarm rate and a precipitous decline in hit rate at long lags. The intact ERP effect and the change in response bias during recognition suggest that frontal patients exhibited a deficit in strategic processing or postretrieval monitoring, in contrast to the more purely mnemonic deficit shown by hippocampal patients.

Note: Article Swick D, Vet Affairs Med Ctr, Dept Neurol, 150 Muir Rd, Martinez,CA 94553 USA

Keyword(s): EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS; POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY; FRONTAL-LOBE DAMAGE; DEPTH-RECORDED POTENTIALS; EPISODIC MEMORY; FALSE RECOGNITION; TEMPORAL-ORDER; CONSCIOUS RECOLLECTION; SPATIOTEMPORAL STAGES; BRAIN POTENTIALS

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