The prefrontal cortex

Abstract The prefrontal cortex receives perceptual information from the temporal and parietal cortices, and is in a position to perform ‘off-line’ processing, including holding items in a short-term memory when the items are no longer present in the input processing streams. This off-line capacity develops into a capability of manipulating and rearranging items in short-term memory, and this is called working memory, which is also implemented in the prefrontal cortex. This ability in humans develops into systems that can plan ahead, and then can control behaviour according to such plans, which is referred to as ‘executive function‘. Attractor networks are fundamental to understanding the functions of the prefrontal cortex in short-term and working memory; and in providing the source of the top-down bias in top-down models of attention. The frontal pole cortex is implicated in exploit vs explore behavioral strategies.