据4月16日的《科学》杂志中法国的研究人员报告说，当我们试图在同一时间做2件事时，我们脑中的每一半似乎都投入到一个不同的作业之中。 这些发现也许可帮助解释为什么我们一般可同时较好地做两种工作但却不能同时做更多的工作。 Sylvain Charron 和Etienne Koechlin应用功能性核磁共振成像（或称fMRI）来监测进行字母配对作业的志愿者脑中的活动。 当这些志愿者在一个时间完成一项作业的时候，其双侧脑的背侧前扣带回和前运动皮层都是被激活的。 但是，当这些志愿者同时完成2项作业的时候，其左侧脑的这些区域的活动与主要作业相对应，而右侧脑的这些区域的活动则与次级作业相对应。 文章的作者写道，这种在2侧脑中的工作的区分“可廓清人们在作出决定及推理能力时所存在的数种局限性。”
Article #10: "Divided Representation of Concurrent Goals in the Human Frontal Lobes," by S. Charron at Institut National de la Sante et de le Recherche Medicale in Paris, France; S. Charron at Ecole Polytechnique in Palaiseau, France; E. Koechlin at Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, France; E. Koechlin at CENIR in Paris, France; E. Koechlin at Universite Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France.
英文原文原始出处及摘要：
Science 16 April 2010:
Vol. 328. no. 5976, pp. 360 - 363
DOI: 10.1126/science.1183614
Reports
Divided Representation of Concurrent Goals in the Human Frontal Lobes
Sylvain Charron1,2 and Etienne Koechlin1,3,4,*
The anterior prefrontal cortex (APC) confers on humans the ability to simultaneously pursue several goals. How does the brain’s motivational system, including the medial frontal cortex (MFC), drive the pursuit of concurrent goals? Using brain imaging, we observed that the left and right MFC, which jointly drive single-task performance according to expected rewards, divide under dual-task conditions: While the left MFC encodes the rewards driving one task, the right MFC concurrently encodes those driving the other task. The same dichotomy was observed in the lateral frontal cortex, whereas the APC combined the rewards driving both tasks. The two frontal lobes thus divide for representing simultaneously two concurrent goals coordinated by the APC. The human frontal function seems limited to driving the pursuit of two concurrent goals simultaneously.
1 Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Paris F-75654 Cedex 13, France.
2 Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau F-91128, France.
3 Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris F-75230 Cedex 05, France.
4 CENIR, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris F-75651 Cedex 13, France.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: etienne.koechlin@upmc.fr
