The effect of periarcuate lesions in the monkey on the performance of symmetrically and asymmetrically reinforced visual and auditory go, no-go tasks.

Monkeys with lesions restricted to the periarcuate region of the frontal cortex were impaired on go, no-go tasks in which, depending on the stimulus present on any given trial, they were rewarded either for pushing a manipulandum or for withholding this response for a given period of time. By contrast, these animals were able to learn at a normal rate go, no-go tasks in which they were rewarded if they responded in the presence of a "positive" stimulus, but not in the presence of a "negative" stimulus. In the latter situation, responding in the presence of the "negative" stimulus was extinguished through non-reward, whereas the tasks on which impairments were demonstrated required solution on the basis of a conditional rule: If stimulus A, respond, and if stimulus B, withhold responding, to receive reward. Because the 2 experimental situations were identical in every respect except for the one critical difference in the testing procedure, the present set of experiments provides a powerful demonstration of the involvement of the periarcuate cortex in conditional learning with exteroceptive stimuli.