Prefrontal Cortex

Abstract

The key to the granular prefrontal (PF) cortex is that it sits at the top of the sensory processing hierarchy, the motor hierarchy, and the outcome hierarchy. This means that it is a position to learn abstract task rules. These relate to conditional tasks that involve sequences, associations, and attentional performance. Because they can learn abstract rules, primates can show specific behavioural transfer from one problem to another when the problems share the same logic. And, since the different PF areas are closely interconnected, the PF cortex provides a general-purpose mechanism for the rapid solution of novel tasks.