Insights into the nature of fronto-temporal interactions from a biconditional discrimination task in the monkey

Previous work in monkeys has shown that both frontal and inferior temporal cortices are required to solve visual learning tasks. When communication between these cortical areas is prevented within the same hemisphere by crossed lesions of the frontal cortex in one hemisphere and the inferior temporal cortex in the opposite hemisphere, most learning tasks are impaired, but learning of object-reward associations is unimpaired. The current experiment aims to understand further the role of the interaction between the frontal and inferior temporal cortices in learning tasks. We trained monkeys on a biconditional discrimination task, in which different visual cues guided behaviour towards choice objects. One visual cue predicted immediate delivery of reward to a correct response, the other visual cue predicted a delayed delivery of reward to a correct response. Pre-operative behavioural data clearly shows that the monkeys form expectations of the reward outcome for the individual cues and choice objects. Crossed lesions of frontal and inferior temporal cortices, however, produce no impairment on this task. The result suggests (in combination with previous experiments) that task difficulty does not determine the reliance of a task on interactions between the frontal cortex and the inferior temporal cortex within the same hemisphere. Instead, we propose that tasks that can be solved by using expectation of the reward outcome do not require interaction of frontal and inferior temporal cortices within the same hemisphere. The results are discussed in the context of other data on frontal interactions with inferior temporal cortex in learning tasks.