The Medial Frontal Cortex, Performance Monitoring, Cognitive Control, and Decision Making

Abstract

This chapter outlines the involvement of the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) in performance monitoring, cognitive control, and decision making. We first describe the neuroanatomy of the pMFC. We then review the functional contributions of the pMFC to performance monitoring, resulting adaptations, and decision making. Based on the evidence reviewed in this chapter, we conclude that a broad array of performance monitoring and decision-making signals are represented in the pMFC. Specific properties of these signals allow the pMFC to monitor performance, implement necessary adjustments, and to perform complex reward and environment structure learning. Future research should consider the substantial interindividual variability of pMFC anatomy to parse out the representations of these signals within the pMFC into finer level of detail.