Using positron emission tomography (PET) and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) measurements, we investigated the cerebral correlates of consciousness in a sequence learning task through a novel application of the Process Dissociation Procedure, a behavioral paradigm that makes it possible to separately assess conscious and unconscious contributions to performance. Results show that the metabolic response in the anterior cingulate/mesial prefrontal cortex (ACC/MPFC) is exclusively and specifically correlated with the explicit component of performance during recollection of a learned sequence. This suggests a significant role for the ACC/MPFC in the explicit processing of sequential material. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Destrebecqz, A ; Peigneux, P ; Laureys, S ; Degueldre, C ; Del Fiore, G ; et. al. Cerebral correlates of explicit sequence learning. In: Cognitive Brain Research, Vol. 16, no. 3, p. 391-398 (2003)
