Evaluation Summary:
A meta-analysis of over 14,000 fMRI studies revealed a principle rostral-caudal gradient in the lateral prefrontal cortex. This gradient reflected an internal/external axis, which helps to organize the LPFC's involvement in widespread processes from affect, to memory, to control, and action. This is an important contribution to the literature, particularly as a meta-analytic approach has not been applied to this axis of organization and can complement the limitations of single studies. The evidence for the conclusions could be strengthened by ruling out bias in the analysis and drawing a clearer relationship to functional networks.
(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)