Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the implicit association of concepts and attributes

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) examines the differential association o f two object categories (e.g. flower and insect) with attribute categories (e.g. pleasant and unpleasant). When items from congruent categories (e.g. flower + pleasant) share a response key, performance is faster and more acc urate than when items from incongruent categories (e.g. insect + pleasant) share a key. Performing incongruent word classification engages inhibitory processes to overcome the prepotent tendency to map emotionally congruent i tems to the same response key. Using fMRI on subjects undergoing the IAT, w e show that the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and to a lesser extent the anterior cingulate cortex, mediate inhibitory processes where manipula tion of word association is required. NeuroReport 11:135-140 (C) 2000 Lippi ncott Williams & Wilkins.