Understanding the Prefrontal Cortex

Professor Richard E. Passingham FRS is Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oxford. He was made Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Oxford in 1997. In 1996 he moved to the newly founded Wellcome Centre for NeuroImaging at the University of London where he was an Honorary Principal. He was amongst the first to use brain imaging to study human cognition, starting in 1988 at the MRC Cyclotron Unit at the Hammersmith Hospital where he was an Honorary Senior Lecturer. He was made a University Lecturer and Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford in 1976. He received his BA from the University of Oxford and his Ph.D in Psychology from the University of London.

• Foundations 1: Introduction 2: The evolution of non-human primate brains Subareas of the prefrontal cortex 3: Medial prefrontal cortex: self-generated action 4: Orbital prefrontal cortex: Evaluating resources 5: Caudal prefrontal cortex: Searching for objects 6: Dorsal prefrontal cortex: Planning sequences 7: Ventral prefrontal cortex: Associating objects Prefrontal cortex within the system as a whole 8: Prefrontal cortex: abstract rules, reinforcement and skill The human brain 9: The evolution of the prefrontal cortex in the hominins 10: Human prefrontal cortex: Reasoning, imagination, and planning 11: Human prefrontal cortex: Communication, mentalizing, and moral rules

If you want to understand the frontal lobes of the brain then there is no better guide than this. It covers both the very latest research and the seminal studies that have shaped the field. Not only does it integrate what we know about the patterns of activity that play across prefrontal neurons with neuroimaging research but it is informed by a deep understanding of anatomy and evolution. There is nothing else quite like it.