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Science 30 June 1967:
Vol. 156. no. 3783, pp. 1765 - 1767
DOI: 10.1126/science.156.3783.1765
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Articles

Short-Term Memory, Parsing, and the Primate Frontal Cortex

K. H. Pribram 1 and W. E. Tubbs 1

1 Neuropsychology Laboratories, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California 94304

Removal of the frontal cortex of primates resulted earlier in a psychological deficit usually classified in terms of short-term memory. This classification is based on impairment in performance of delayed-response or alternation-type tasks. We report an experiment in which the classical 5-seconddelay right-left-right-left (R-L-R-L) altenation task was modified by placing a 15-seconid interval between each R-L couplet: R-L . . . R-L . . . R-L . . . . This mnodification made it possible for monkeys with frontal lesions, which had failed the classical task, to perform with very few errors. The result suggests that proper division, parsing of the stream of stimuli to which the organism is subjected, is a more important variable in the mechanism of short-term memory than is the maintenance of a neural trace per se.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Role of the Lateral Prefrontal Cortex in Executive Behavioral Control.
J. Tanji and E. Hoshi (2008)
Physiol Rev 88, 37-57
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Frontal Lobes and Memory for the Temporal Order of Recent Events.
B. Milner, M.R McAndrews, and G. Leonard (1990)
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 55, 987-994
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