Neural mechanisms for executive functions in the prefrontal cortex

执行功能是前额叶皮层最重要的功能。前额叶神经元产生自上而下的控制信号，通过将这些信号发送到后联合皮层，前额叶皮层控制后皮层发生的各种操作。然而，自上而下的控制信号的性质尚不清楚。在本研究中，我们分析了前额叶活动，而猴子进行配对联想任务，需要从长期记忆中检索特定的信息下，自上而下的控制的前额叶皮层。我们发现，刺激对选择性视觉反应和对选择性延迟期活动必须是自上而下的控制信号的候选者，这些活动被发送到后联想皮层，并作为信号检索样本刺激的配对联想。

Executive function is the most important function of the prefrontal cortex. Prefrontal neurons generate top-down control signals and, by sending these signals to the posterior association cortices, the prefrontal cortex controls a variety of operations occurred in the posterior cortices. However, the nature of the top-down control signal is not yet known. In the present study, we analyzed prefrontal activities while monkeys performed a pair-association task that was required to retrieve specific information from long-term memory under the top-down control of the prefrontal cortex. We found that stimulus-pair-selective visual responses and pair-selective delay-period activities must be candidates of top-down control signals and that these activities are sent to the posterior association cortices and act as signals to retrieve paired associate of the sample stimulus.