Editing Spatial memory (section)

===Prefrontal cortex===
[[File:Ptsd-brain.png|thumb|left|120px|alt=medial view of the right cerebral hemisphere showing the location of the prefrontal cortex at the front of the brain and more specifically the medial prefrontal cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex.|Medial view of the cerebral hemisphere showing the location of the prefrontal cortex and more specifically the medial and ventromedial prefrontal cortex in purple]]

The medial [[prefrontal cortex]] processes egocentric spatial information. It participates in the processing of short-term spatial memory used to guide planned search behavior and is believed to join spatial information with its [[motivation]]al significance.<ref name="Lee, I. 2003"/><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Pratt | first1 = W. E. | last2 = Mizumori | first2 = S. J. Y. | year = 2001 | title = Neurons in rat medial prefrontal cortex show anticipatory rate changes to predictable differential rewards in a spatial memory task | journal = Behavioural Brain Research | volume = 123 | issue = 2| pages = 165–183 | doi = 10.1016/S0166-4328(01)00204-2 | pmid = 11399329 }}</ref> The identification of neurons that anticipate expected [[Reinforcement|rewards]] in a spatial task support this hypothesis. The medial prefrontal cortex is also implicated in the temporal organization of information.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Kesner | first1 = R. P. | last2 = Holbrook | first2 = T. | year = 1987 | title = Dissociation of item and order spatial memory in rats following medial prefrontal cortex lesions | journal = Neuropsychologia | volume = 25 | issue = 4| pages = 653–664 | doi = 10.1016/0028-3932(87)90056-X | pmid = 3658148 }}</ref>

Hemisphere specialization is found in this brain region. The left prefrontal cortex preferentially processes categorical spatial memory including source memory (reference to spatial relationships between a place or event), while the right prefrontal cortex preferentially processes coordinate spatial memory including item memory (reference to spatial relationships between features of an item).<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Slotnick | first1 = S. D. | last2 = Moo | first2 = L. R. | year = 2006 | title = Prefrontal cortex hemispheric specialization for categorical and coordinate visual spatial memory | journal = Neuropsychologia | volume = 44 | issue = 9| pages = 1560–1568 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.01.018 | pmid = 16516248 }}</ref>

Lesions to the medial prefrontal cortex impair the performance of rats on a previously trained radial arm maze, but rats can gradually improve to the level of the controls as a function of experience.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Becker | first1 = J. T. | last2 = Walker | first2 = J. A. | last3 = Olton | first3 = D. S. | year = 1980 | title = Neuroanatomical bases of spatial memory | journal = Brain Research | volume = 200 | issue = 2| pages = 307–320 | doi = 10.1016/0006-8993(80)90922-1 | pmid = 7417818 }}</ref> Lesions to this area also cause deficits on delayed nonmatching-to-positions tasks and impairments in the acquisition of spatial memory tasks during training trials.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Aggleton | first1 = J. P. | last2 = Neave | first2 = N. | last3 = Nagle | first3 = S. | last4 = Sahgal | first4 = A. | year = 1995 | title = A comparison of the effects of medial prefrontal, cingulate cortex, and cingulum bundle lesions on tests of spatial memory: Evidence of a double dissociation between frontal and cingulum bundle contributions | journal = The Journal of Neuroscience | volume = 15 | issue = 11| pages = 7270–7281 | pmid = 7472481 | pmc = 6578066 | doi = 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.15-11-07270.1995 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Lacroix | first1 = L. | last2 = White | first2 = I. | last3 = Feldon | first3 = J. | year = 2002 | title = Effect of excitotoxic lesions of rat medial prefrontal cortex on spatial memory | journal = Behavioural Brain Research | volume = 133 | issue = 1| pages = 69–81 | doi = 10.1016/S0166-4328(01)00442-9 | pmid = 12048175 }}</ref>