TY - JOUR T1 - Dissociation Of Working Memory from Decision Making within the Human Prefrontal Cortex JF - The Journal of Neuroscience JO - J. Neurosci. SP - 428 LP - 437 DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.18-01-00428.1998 VL - 18 IS - 1 AU - Antoine Bechara AU - Hanna Damasio AU - Daniel Tranel AU - Steven W. Anderson Y1 - 1998/01/01 UR - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/18/1/428.abstract N2 - We tested the hypothesis that cognitive functions related to working memory (assessed with delay tasks) are distinct from those related to decision making (assessed with a gambling task), and that working memory and decision making depend in part on separate anatomical substrates. Normal controls (n = 21), subjects with lesions in the ventromedial (VM) (n = 9) or dorsolateral/high mesial (DL/M) prefrontal cortices (n = 10), performed on (1) modified delay tasks that assess working memory and (2) a gambling task designed to measure decision making. VM subjects with more anterior lesions (n = 4) performed defectively on the gambling but not the delay task. VM subjects with more posterior lesions (n = 5) were impaired on both tasks.Right DL/M subjects were impaired on the delay task but not the gambling task. Left DL/M subjects were not impaired on either task. The findings reveal a cognitive and anatomic double dissociation between deficits in decision making (anterior VM) and working memory (right DL/M). This presents the first direct evidence of such effects in humans using the lesion method and underscores the special importance of the VM prefrontal region in decision making, independent of a direct role in working memory. ER -