Dissociable contributions of the left and right posterior medial orbitofrontal cortex in motivational control of goal-directed behavior.

Several findings from both human neuroimaging and nonhuman primate studies suggest that the posterior medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) may be critical for the motivational control of goal-directed behavior. The present study was conducted to clarify the role of the left and right posterior medial OFC in that function by examining the effects of focal unilateral lesions to this region on the performance on an incentive working memory task. The study covered patients who had undergone surgery for an ACoA aneurysm and normal control subjects (C).

[Preoperative anxiety assessed by questionnaires and patient declarations].

Background: The perioperative period can be anxiety-provoking for any patient scheduled for surgery. The anxiety can be divided into three categories: physiological, psychological and behavioural. For objective assessment, special questionnaires have been used, yet since they are too complicated for everyday use, simpler methods have been proposed.

Cognitive inhibition in patients with medial orbitofrontal damage.

Inhibition underlies cognitive processes such as overcoming habitual responses, suppressing of goal-irrelevant information, and switching of attention between stimuli or task rules. These processes are thought to depend on the frontal lobes. However, the precise role of the ventral frontal regions (orbitofrontal cortex) in these processes remains elusive.

The role of the human ventromedial prefrontal cortex in memory for contextual information.

There is a growing body of evidence that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) is implicated in the new learning of visual items. Little is known, however, as to the involvement of that portion of the prefrontal cortex in the learning of temporal and spatial relationship of those items. The aim of the present study, therefore, was to investigate the role of the VMPFC in memory for temporal and spatial order.

Memory for object and object-location after lesions to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in humans.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of small unilateral lesions to the ventromedial portion of the prefrontal cortex on two memory functions: memory for objects and memory for object locations. Patients, who had undergone surgery of the anterior communicating artery aneurysm, and normal control subjects, participated in the study. The patients were subdivided into two groups: with and without unilateral resection of the gyrus rectus.