The role of the monkey ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in the organization of intentional actions

A crucial aspect in the organization of intentional actions is the chaining of single motor acts into well organized motor sequences. In a pioneering experiment was demonstrated that inferior parietal neurons code grasping motor acts differently depending on the final goal of the action where the motor acts were embedded (grasp-to-eat or grasp-to-place). Similar findings have been reported by neurophysiological investigations carried out on the ventral premotor cortex. These results suggest the possible presence of a neural mechanism capable of integrating contextual information used by the monkey to decide which action to perform. Functional results and anatomical connections between the inferior parietal and ventral premotor areas suggest that cortico-cortical projections of different cortical areas can play a crucial role in the selection of inferior parietal and ventral premotor neuronal pools for the organization of intentional actions. The ventrolateral prefrontal cortex appears one of the most plausible candidates to fulfill this function. In fact, several studies evidenced that the ventrolatelateral prefrontal cortex play a role in arranging motor chunks - such as pushing, pulling or turning – into over-trained motor sequences based on learned sensory instructions. The purpose of this study is to clarify, using a controlled behavioral paradigm, the possible contribution of ventrolateral prefrontal neurons to the integration of contextual information for the selection and generation of natural actions.