Friends,
The difficulty to form and execute plans of action is diagnostic of large prefrontal lesions. The expectancy of reward activates many neurons, especially in orbital prefrontal cortex. All four major executive functions of the lateral prefrontal cortex (planning, executive attention, working memory, and decision-making) are prospective, “look” to a more or less distant future. The prefrontal cortex is rightfully called the “organ of creativity,” as it is capable of organizing novel actions and speech (it has “memory of the future,” Ingvar 1985). It is also capable of “imagining” what’s to come, and to estimate future risks and benefits. The stock market is moved up or down by the collective prefrontal cortex of countless investors. In sum, here is a brain structure that is literally driven by the future, eminently teleological. Many seem to ignore such an obvious fact. A bit of reflection is here in order, however.
For the self-respecting scientist, teleology is anathema and intolerable absurdity, because it reverses the natural temporal order between cause and effect. That reversal in the prefrontal cortex is only apparent, however, because for that cortex, as for the rest of nature, there is “nothing entirely new under the sun.” Thus, all new planning, all new creation, all new imagination, and all new decisions are based on history and prior experience. All of them are simply re-creations of the past.
Thus the absurdity is gone. But think of how dull, how witless, how plain and how barren would be a world without the prefrontal cortex!
Cheers,
Joaquín
J.M. Fuster and S.L Bressler – Past makes future: Role of pFC in prediction. J. Cogni. Neuroscience, 27: 639-654, 2015.
There is actually considerable clinical evidence for that, which is used by many as the rationale for the efficacy of serotonin in depression.
Kind regards, Joaquín
I'm not sure these functions ARE so neglected. You cite research pointing to the pFC (or some of its circuits) as a future-oriented set of systems. And I remember Endel Tulving, in a talk I attended some few years back, suggesting that episodic memory is essentially a by-product of our ability to imagine possible futures (almost a spandrel, really, though he didn't go quite so far).
But perhaps what you mean is that the teleological implications tend to be neglected? Fair enough, I suppose. Except that as you say, we represent NOW what might happen in the future, so really we are acting on the basis of present cognitions. Perhaps we could argue that the common human tendency to think of the world in teleological terms is an inevitable glitch secondary to our own pseudo-finality?
Dear Stephen,
Of course you are correct in all the particulars you point out. My question was mainly intended to provoke discussion. In favor of your reasoning I should have added that the prefrontal cortex works within the perception-action cycle, which has no definite temporal origin. Thanks.
Joaquín
This is almost certainly true for the planning of language and speech.
cf. new publication on the topic of PFC functions in language and speech: Article The neural dynamics of competition resolution for language p...
Great work. Note that the selection of word is in any case prospective. JMF
Thank you for the positive comment and recommendation, Dr. Fuster.
I am an absolute proponent of the role of the prefrontal cortex in goal-directed behavior. I agree that the idea of goal-directed actions is neglected. In my opinion there may be two reasons for this. First, most of researchers still use paradigms in which the idea of goal-directed behavior is not used or unimportant. It is of interest that the manifestation of such paradigms can be found in the question presented because it can be derived from the question that the prefrontal cortex is only “the organ of the future” and the rest of the brain functions in a stimulus-reaction mode. This is not a case. The whole brain is the predictive organ because the function of the brain is the satisfaction of the organism’s needs and needs are always aimed at the future. For example, animals and humans feel hungry before there is a real shortage of nutrients in the organism or in novel and unusual situations humans and animals may feel stress and anxiety even if nothing happens, etc.
The other reason is that most of the mechanistic models of how pFC constructs goal-directed actions from the past and the present are still not sufficient to explain corresponding data. The article attached, to some extent, is an example of this. The article demonstrates the prefrontal cortex is strongly involved in goal-directed actions but the authors does not suggest specific mechanisms which the prefrontal cortex would use to construct and pursue goals. Such special mechanisms are necessary if pFC is the predictive system. Cognits and the PA cycle in itself obviously are not unique characteristics of pFC
My position is that the main function of the human prefrontal cortex is the formation of learned needs, which are so strong and long-term as innate needs and then the execution of goal-directed processes associated with these needs. The prefrontal cortex constructs the goal and the means of a goal-directed process jointly on the basis of the criterion of minimal construction costs.
Prudkov, P.N. (2010). A view on human goal-directed activity and the construction of artificial intelligence. Minds and Machines, 20, 363-383.
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