 |
| Research article summary (published 30 Jul 2003): |
Thinking of the future and past: the roles of the frontal pole and the medial temporal lobes.
Full Abstract
Human lesion data have indicated that the frontal polar area might be critically involved in having an insight into one's future. Retrospective memory mediated by medial temporal lobes and related structures, on the other hand, could be used to extract one's future prospects efficiently. In the present study, we investigated the roles of these two brain structures in thinking of the future and past by using positron emission tomography (PET) and a naturalistic task setting. We measured regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in healthy subjects while they were talking about their future prospects or past experiences, with regard to two different temporal windows (in years or days). Many areas in the frontal and the medial temporal lobes were activated during the future and past tasks compared with a control task requiring semantic retrieval. Among these, areas in anteromedial frontal pole showed greater activation during the future tasks than during the past tasks, showing significant effect of temporal distance from the present. Most areas in the medial temporal lobes showed greater or equivalent level of activations during the future tasks compared with the past tasks. The present results suggest that thinking of the future is closely related to retrospective memory, but that specific areas in the frontal pole and the medial temporal lobes are more involved with thinking of the future than that of the past.
Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills
Author information
Author/s: Okuda, Jiro (J); Fujii, Toshikatsu (T); Ohtake, Hiroya (H); Tsukiura, Takashi (T); Tanji, Kazuyo (K); Suzuki, Kyoko (K); Kawashima, Ryuta (R); Fukuda, Hiroshi (H); Itoh, Masatoshi (M); Yamadori, Atsushi (A);
Affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, UK. j.okuda(-atsign-)ucl.ac.uk
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Journal: NeuroImage (Neuroimage), published in United States. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2003-Aug; vol 19 (issue 4) : pp 1369-80
Dates: Created 2003/09/01; Completed 2003/10/23; Revised 2006/11/15;
PMID: 12948695, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):
Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.
This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.
MeSH headings (categories)
This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.
|
|
Related articles
This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.
See a large map of 100+ related articles.