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Wise SP.(2008) Forward frontal fields: phylogeny and fundamental function. Trends Neurosci. 31:12:599-608. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2008.08.008.
ABSTRACT
The largest part of the primate prefrontal cortex has no homologue in other mammals. Accordingly,
it probably confers some advantage that other mammals either lack or attain another way. Yet this
advantage remains enigmatic. Not so for other parts of cortex. For example, certain visual areas
encode, represent and store knowledge about objects. By analogy, perhaps the primate prefrontal
cortex encodes, represents and stores knowledge about behaviors, including the consequences of
doing (or not doing) something in complex and challenging situations. The long list of functions
often attributed to prefrontal cortex may all contribute to knowing what to do and what will happen
when rare risks arise or outstanding opportunities knock
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