Joaquin Fuster

This chapter discusses the executive functions of the prefrontal cortex against the background of its position in the neocortical map of cognitive representations. It attempts to place prefrontal functions within the broad framework of the cortical substrate of long-term memory, which is formed by a complex array of widely distributed, overlapping, and intersecting neuronal networks in the neocortex of association. The chapter then presents a conceptual model of the distribution of long-term memory in the neocortex. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of microelectrode data from the lateral prefrontal cortex that not only reaffirm the anchoring of its functions in long-term memory but also provide insight into the mechanisms of temporal integration, which is cardinal among those functions.

This commentary questions the target articles inferences from a limited set of empirical data to support this model and conceptual scheme. Especially questionable is the attribution of internal representation properties to an assembly of cells in a discrete cortical module firing at a discrete attractor frequency. Alternative inferences are drawn from cortical cooling and cell-firing data that point to the internal representation as a broad and specific cortical network defined by cortico-cortical connectivity. Active memory, it is proposed, consists in the sustained activation of the component neuron populations of the network.

Joaquín M. Fuster is an eminent cognitive neuroscientist whose research over the last five decades has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of the neural structures underlying cognition and behaviour. This book provides his view on the eternal question of whether we have free will. Based on his seminal work on the functions of the prefrontal cortex in decision-making, planning, creativity, working memory, and language, Professor Fuster argues that the liberty or freedom to choose between alternatives is a function of the cerebral cortex, under prefrontal control, in its reciprocal interaction with the environment. Freedom is therefore inseparable from that circular relationship. The Neuroscience of Freedom and Creativity is a fascinating inquiry into the cerebral foundation of our ability to choose between alternative actions and to freely lead creative plans to their goal.