[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Cognitive control, hierarchy, and the rostro–caudal organization of the frontal lobes

## Details

**Authors** David Badre

**Year** 2008

**Publisher** Trends in Cognitive Sciences

**Discipline** Neuroscience

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2008.02.004) 
10.1016/j.tics.2008.02.004

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

How does working memory work in the prefrontal cortex?

### What they found (results)

There are spatially distinct areas of the brain for some distinct processes.

## Commentary

### In short

The structure of the brain itself is distinct, and leads to the ability to do D,S,R,P.

### In more detail

If research confirms the innate and essential nature of distinction making - across the sensory inputs - it becomes relevant to explore associated activity within the brain as these things are occurring. For example, Badre, 2008 researched the prefrontal cortex and working memory. The memory function allows for active maintenance and manipulation of information over a brief interval in the service of a task. Of note is that working memory is considered to be domain-specific in the brain, existing in specific areas of the brain depending on the stimuli. Badre’s experiments tested for regional differences based on the working memory domain. He found that “when content-based distinctions are evident [in the brain/thinking processes], they are typically observed in caudal (near the posterior of the body) PFC [prefrontal cortex] structures.” However, object or spatial distinctions have not yet been located and are considered to be controversial. While acknowledging this, Barde wrote, rostral (near the front of the body) PFC regions “ … seem to be capable of maintaining information from multiple domains, such as object and spatial, in addition to integrated cross-domain information, such as an object in a particular location.” Barde also noted that abstraction was found in the prefrontal cortex, and that studying 3 Worker honeybees have the ability to distinguish between other bees by the degrees of relatedness that they are to each other. They use this ability to preferentially aid the bees that are the most related to them. The researchers wanted to see if this principle applied to paper wasps as well. In short, the wasps either are not able to make those same familial distinctions, or they simply choose not to take them into consideration. Alternatively, they could use the distinction but without enough effectiveness to make it advantageous or noticeable (99). 4 The memory function that allows for active maintenance and manipulation of information over a brief interval in the service of a task. 5 In other words, it exists in specific areas of the brain depending on the stimuli.

abstraction could lead to a deeper understanding of the hierarchical structure of the brain. These findings increasingly show a potential neurological placement of where some Distinctions are made, and the potential for distinct areas of the brain being designated for different types of distinction-making is demonstrative of the existence of the Distinction pattern of mind.

**Patterns it shows** D

**How to cite this** David Badre (2008). Cognitive control, hierarchy, and the rostro–caudal organization of the frontal lobes. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.