Medial prefrontal cortex

The empirical literature on the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is dominated by studies of its role in decision-making, including conflict monitoring ¹⁾, error detection ²⁾, executive control ^{3) 4)}, reward-guided learning ⁵⁾, and decision making about risk and reward ⁶⁾. However, the mPFC also plays a key role in memory, as highlighted by its selective involvement in the retrieval of “remote” memories (i.e., items learned several weeks earlier) ⁷⁾ (Bontempi et al., 1999; Frankland et al., 2004; Takashima et al., 2006b). Other studies implicate mPFC in “recent” memory, learned 1–2 days earlier. For example, inactivation of mPFC impairs the recall of fear memory learned the previous day (Corcoran and Quirk, 2007). Hence, the mPFC plays a role in both recent and remote memory. Other studies have emphasized the role of mPFC in the consolidation of memories, in that interfering with mPFC immediately after learning disrupts subsequent recall in many tasks (e.g., Tronel and Sara, 2003). All of these studies implicate mPFC in what might be defined as “long-term” memory (i.e., memory spanning several hours or longer). There is also evidence that mPFC is important for “short-term” memory, spanning seconds to minutes. For example, rats with mPFC lesions have difficulty recalling place-reward associations over a 30 minute delay (Seamans et al., 1995) or waiting for a response cue over a 30 second delay (Narayanan et al., 2006). In summary, there is evidence that the mPFC plays a critical role in remote, recent and short-term memories over a broad range of tasks.