The role of mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in working memory: a connectionist model

Considerable evidence suggests that while ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays the primary role in basic working memory tasks, dorsolateral PFC plays a complementary role in working memory tasks requiring monitoring or manipulation. It is proposed here that the specific function of mid-dorsolateral PFC is to impose organization on items held in working memory by establishing dynamic bindings between those items' representations and representations of spatial concepts. A connectionist model demonstrates the viability of this proposal. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.