THE EFFECTS OF INFERIOR TEMPORAL AND DORSOLATERAL FRONTAL LESIONS ON SERIAL-ORDER BEHAVIOR AND VISUAL-IMAGERY IN MONKEYS

Four monkeys were trained preoperatively on a serial-order task to res pond to a set of five visual stimuli in a fixed sequence independent o f their location. They were then given a test of visual imagery in whi ch only two of the five stimuli appeared at a time, and the animals we re required to respond to them in the order in which they appeared in the original sequence. The monkeys then received bilateral lesions of either inferior temporal cortex or dorsolateral frontal cortex. Dorsol ateral frontal lesions had no effect on either serial-order behavior o r visual imagery. In contrast, inferior temporal lesions severely impa ired serial-order behavior. Once the serial-order task was relearned, however, the inferior temporal animals were completely normal on the t est of visual imagery.