Main description:

This book is devoted to the executive, emotional, social, and integrative functions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The PFC has usually been studied only with its executive function or with its emotional function, but recent studies indicate that the PFC plays important roles in integrating executive and emotional functions as well as in social behavior. The first part of the book reviews the functional organization of the PFC in human and nonhuman primates. The subsequent part focuses on the integrator of executive and emotional functions. The third part presents the integrator of executive and social functions, and the final part discusses the default mode of brain activities. There are chapters on animal studies, because functional significance of the PFC cannot be described without referring to those studies. Thus many methodologies are presented such as human neuropsychological, neuroimaging, and stimulation studies, and animal neuropsychological, neurophysiological, neurochemical, neuroanatomical, and neuroimaging studies. Bringing those together, this volume provides a timely and concise picture of the function of the PFC. The result is a valuable resource for students and scientists, providing up-to-date information on this emerging research topic.

Contents:

Preface.- Part I. Functional organization of the prefrontal cortex in human and nonhuman primates.- Chapter 1 Neural Correlates of Strategic Decision Making in the Primate Prefrontal Cortex.- Chapter 2 Functional division among prefrontal cortical areas in an analog of Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.- Chapter 3 Working memory functions of the prefrontal cortex.- Part II. Prefrontal cortex as an integrator of executive and emotional function.- Chapter 4 Prefrontal cortex integration of emotion and cognition.- Chapter 5 Interaction of dopamine and glutamate release in the primate prefrontal cortex in relation to working memory and reward.- Chapter 6 Neuronal risk processing in human and monkey prefrontal cortex.- Chapter 7 Hierarchical Organization of Frontoparietal Control Networks Underlying Goal-Directed Behavior.- Part III. Prefrontal cortex as an integrator of executive and social function.- Chapter 8 Self-other differentiation and monitoring others' actions in the medial prefrontal cortex of the monkey.- Chapter 9 Neural correlates of competition in the primate prefrontal cortex.- Chapter 10 Self-recognition process in the human prefrontal cortex.- Chapter 11 Shared attention and inter-individual neural synchronization in the human right inferior frontal cortex.- Part IV. Default mode of brain activity and the prefrontal cortex.- Chapter12 Default mode of brain activity observed in the lateral, medial and orbital prefrontal cortex in the monkey.- Chapter13 Coactivation of default mode network and executive network regions in the human brain.