The Frontal Lobes
> Functional anatomy of the frontal lobes
> Deficits resulting from frontal lobe insult
> Testing prefrontal function
> Common causes of frontal lobe syndromes
2nd year BA Psychology
What do they do?
The frontal lobes control our behaviour in response to social and environmental situations.
They draw input from the senses (external source) and from memory (internal source)
The frontal lobe is the part of the brain that controls important cognitive skills in humans,
such as emotions, expressions, problem solving, memory, language, judgement, and sexual
behaviour. It is, in essence, the ‘control panel’ of our ability to communicate.
Outline
Functional anatomy of the frontal lobes
Deficits resulting from frontal lobe insult
Testing prefrontal function
Common causes of frontal lobe syndromes
Frontal lobe anatomy
Motor cortex – primary (our ability to consciously move our muscles), premotor,
supplementary, frontal eye field, broca’s speech area
Prefrontal cortex – dorsolateral, medial, orbitofrontal
Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DL-PFC)
Located in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.
This region lies in the middle frontal gyrus of humans.
Functions:
Highest cortical area responsible for motor planning, organisation, and regulation
Integrating sensory information
Regulation of intellectual function and action
Involved in mnemonics and working memory
Not exclusively responsible for the executive functions. All complex mental activity requires the
additional cortical and subcortical circuits which connect the DL-PFC
Damage to the DL-PFC
Dysexecutive syndrome; problems with affect, social judgement, planning, abstract thinking,
flexibility, behavioural control, memory and intentionality
Deception and lying. Studies using TMS to ‘deactivate’ the DL-PFC show that stimulating the right
hemisphere deceases lying, whilst stimulating the left hemisphere increase lying (Kartona &
Bachmannc, 2011)
Medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)
Functions (not entirely known): error detection, imagining, thinking about yourself, perspective
taking. Processing emotional stimuli
Damage to mPFC: problems with the functions above
Orbital prefrontal cortex (O-PFC)
Functions:
Determining the expected rewards/punishments of an action
Adaptive learning, mediates decision-making
Emotional stability
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