Department of Physiology, University of Tokyo School of Medicine, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan. hasegawa@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp A perceptual image can be recalled from memory without sensory stimulation. However, the neural origin of memory retrieval remains unsettled. To examine whether memory retrieval can be regulated by top-down processes originating from the prefrontal cortex, a visual associative memory task was introduced into the partial split-brain paradigm in monkeys. Long-term memory acquired through stimulus-stimulus association did not transfer via the anterior corpus callosum, a key part interconnecting prefrontal cortices. Nonetheless, when a visual cue was presented to one hemisphere, the anterior callosum could instruct the other hemisphere to retrieve the correct stimulus specified by the cue. Thus, although visual long-term memory is stored in the temporal cortex, memory retrieval is under the executive control of the prefrontal cortex.