Mnemonic introspection in macaques is dependent on dorsolateral prefrontal but not orbitofrontal cortex

Metacognition refers to the ability to be aware of one9s own cognition. The anterior prefrontal cortex has been associated with meta-perceptual but not meta-memory decisions. A recent study has challenged this notion showing that neural activation in macaques9 prefrontal areas 9 and 9/46d is associated with metamemory of recognition of items. Here, we verified the critical role of sub-regions of prefrontal cortex in the domain of spatial recognition memory. We contrasted performance of monkeys with superior dorsolateral prefrontal lesion with orbitofrontal lesioned monkeys and unoperated controls in spatial recognition memory tasks. We show that monkeys with dorsolateral lesions are impaired in meta-accuracy, but not in recognition performance, in comparison to orbitofrontal-lesioned and control monkeys. Together with the observation that the same orbitofrontal-lesioned monkeys were impaired in updating rule-value in a Wisconsin Card Sorting Test analog, we provide causal evidence towards functional specialisation between dorsolateral and ventromedial prefrontal cortices underpinning the introspection ability in relation to memory recognition in primates.