The Fundamental Ability Of The Prefrontal Cortex

67) The frontal lobes are described as the brain’s “orchestra leader” (Martin, 1998, p. 190), which would place them at the reins of controlling effective behaviour. Damage to the frontal lobes encompasses a wide range of symptoms including deficits in executive functioning, changes in personality, emotional expression and social interaction. This includes apathy and lack of spontaneity, inability to plan and modify the sequencing of behaviour and inappropriate behaviour. 2

2012.). These symptoms are a result of trauma to the lobes that are responsible for an individual’s speech, coordination, memory, and motor control. Each brain structure is vital in how an individual functions and perceives the world; when this structure is damaged, even temporarily, the functions of the structures are delayed. However, long-term issues from damage to the brain are extensively detrimental its function. While some may experience impulsivity, violent behavior, emotional/social withdrawal, and memory issues, others may experience language disturbances and sensory disorders (“Psychological Sequelae: Postconcussion, Frontal and Temporal Lobe Syndromes”. 2012.). These long term issues are commonly due to the persistent damage to the frontal and temporal parts of the

Recent research has shown that the human brain continues to develop throughout childhood and adolescence, and may not be fully mature until the mid-20s. The prefrontal cortex of the brain, which regulates “executive” functioning skills, such as decision-making, planning, judgment, expression of emotions, and impulse control, is one of the last to

Have you ever wondered about the functions of the adolescent brain and what causes teenagers and other adolescents to make many risky and absurd decisions sometimes? Did you ever think about the man Phineas Gage who became a textbook case for a severe brain accident in his prefrontal cortex, and how the accident in his brain might have altered it to the point where it would be similar to the adolescent brain?“Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science” by John Fleischman gives examples with evidence about how Phineas’s brain and behavior was transformed after his severe injury involving the prefrontal cortex. This injury causing the prefrontal cortex damaged many important neural connections, that it sent him and his brain

The brain is a very complicated and delicate. If even the slightest part of your brain is damaged there could be major effects. When Phineas Gage lost part of his brain his life and personality completely changed. Before being injured he was a hard-working, nice, and respected man. After the injury nobody respected him because he would always curse at people. The iron rod went through Gage’s frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is a part of the cerebrum and the cerebrum controls many things. The cerebrum is the part of the brain that controls important cognitive skills in humans, such as emotional expression, problem solving, memory, language, and judgment. One ability that Gage lost was his ability to problem solve. After being injured, if Phineas

The case of Phineas Gage provides insight on how trauma or malformations to specific areas of the brain may produce changes in mannerisms in the areas of emotion, behavior, attention span, and could be the source of many other psychological disorders. Studies on the prefrontal cortex are not all in agreement on the extent that damage to the orbitofrontal cortex produces reduced inhibitions and emotional changes, or if these changes are symptomatic of damage producing impeded judgment based on future consequences (Stalnaker, Cooch &Freberg, 2013). Although, the specifics of what the orbitofrontal cortex does or does not do, the link between behavior and brain trauma is clear.

Ramnani. N, Behrens, T, Johansen-Berg, Richeter, MC, Pinsk, MS, Andersson, JLR, et al. 2006. The evolution of prefrontal inputs to the cortico-pontine system: Diffusion imaging evidence from macaque monkeys and humans. Cerebral Cortex, 16: 811-818

It is logical that a reduced level of serotonin would have effects on a neuron's target site. Research has confirmed that the prefrontal cortex of murderers and suicide victims are different from the prefrontal cortex of a normal individual. The prefrontal cortex is often referred to as the "executive" region since it is where humans think, imagine, and make informed decisions (8). Damage to the prefrontal cortex manifests itself in the form of impulsivity, loss of self-control, immaturity, and altered emotionality. Although correlation does not indicate causation, researchers have occasionally used prefrontal cortex injury as an indicator of the likelihood of engaging in aggressive acts. In normal individuals, the frontal lobe is very active, whereas the frontal lobe can be quite inactive in the brains of murderers (9 , 12). Similarly, suicide victims often have fewer neurons in the prefrontal cortex than normal subjects (10). These findings indicate that the prefrontal cortex may be involved in the regulation of a restraint mechanism that is sub-optimal in suicidal and homicidal individuals.

The results of these studies have helped to generate a number of theories regarding the role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in human thought and behaviour. Broadly, the PFC is the area responsible for ‘executive function’ and is involved in complex planning, moderation of social behaviour, expression of personality and decision-making. A key role is the integration of information from other areas of the brain in order to ensure behaviour that is consistent with internal goals. To explain how the PFC functions, Miller and Cohen (2001) propose the Guided Activation Theory, which suggests that the PFC modulates activity flow along pathways in more posterior parts of the brain, particularly enhancing flow along task-relevant pathways.

The prefrontal cortex plays a major key role in Neurocognitive Networks of impulsivity and transition to addiction. The cortex regulates the reward and its involvement in higher-order executive functions, such as self-control, goal oriented behavior, and response inhibition. According to “Goldstein and Volkow” reviewed neuroimaging data of specific prefrontal cortex regions and their roles in neuropsychological mechanisms that underlie the relapsing cycle of addiction. Focusing on inhibitory control and emotion regulation, there are two different prefrontal regions, which are implicated in a higher order cognitive process (cold), and ventral PFC regions subsuming the ventral OFC, ventromedial PFC and rostroventral ACC, which are triggered during

location of the frontal lobe in the brain, it is at high risk of damage, in head trauma case to the

In order to understand why people act in antisocial ways, one needs to pinpoint which area of the brain controls social behavior. The prefrontal cortex has been thought to have something to do with control of social behavior ever since Phineas Gage's famous accident in 1848 (1). Phineas Gage was a

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is largely responsible for formulating literacy along with reasoning processes, widely coined as the ‘conscious’ segment of the frontal lobe. Spontaneous, creative ideas originate this the large portion of the brain, of which was thought to evolved as a mechanism for a nonchalant, supercilious resolution for solving complex conflicts. Asides from humans, many organisms, ranging from ant’s pheromone communication evolution to a protozoans use of new amino acids have shown that this innovating solution is considerably repetitive in nature. Throughout millions of years, archaic humans gradually evolved creativity to confiscate for the lack of physical dominance, bestowing them with the ability to form civilizations.

The four lobes that contribute is the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, occipital lobe, and the parietal lobe. The frontal lobe controls problem solving, planning, and decision making. One of the jobs of cognitive functioning is the reasoning. Problem solving is part of thinking and shows the brain plays that role in a cognitive function. The temporal lobe auditory perception, speech, memory, and emotional responses. The occipital lobe has the jobs of color recognition and visual perception. Lastly, the parietal lobe takes care of the sensory information and language. All the nodes play a part of the cognitive function. There are more structures of the brain that play a role in cognitive function. These structures are the thalamus, putamen, cerebellum, caudate, hippocampus, and amygdala (Leismen, Moustafa, & Shafir,

From the moment that I woke in the morning the reticular formation plays a vital role of keeping me aroused and conscious so that I could go to class. However, it is with my frontal lobe that I make the critical decision of whether or not to actually go to class. The frontal lobe covers executive decision making abilities and because I might miss something important in class I decide that I should leave my room and head to class. Using my somatic system which enables me to use my skeletal muscles to walk to class and my cerebellum that further helps with muscle coordination and balance so that I can make the long trek from Fox *** to Baily 301. As I reach the classroom I finally notice the fact that I never even had to think about pumping