What makes up the frontal cortex

Frontal lobe damage can affect personality, emotion, and behavior. Individual, couple, and family counselling may help with the management of these changes. Medications that address impulse control issues can also be useful, particularly for people who struggle with attention and motivation.

Treatment for frontal lobe damage is often varied, requiring ongoing care and continual re-evaluation of the treatment strategy.

It may include speech and occupational therapists, doctors, psychotherapists, neurologists, imaging specialists, and other professionals. Recovering from a frontal lobe injury is often a long process. Progress can come suddenly or infrequently and is impossible to fully predict. Recovery is closely tied to supportive care, regular cognitive challenges, and a lifestyle that supports good health. A new study in mice shows that manipulating a biological clock circuit alters patterns of aggressiveness that mimic those of humans with Alzheimer's.

Alzheimer's disease can cause people living with it to experience severe anxiety as they try to navigate an unfamiliar world. Can music help them to…. Stroke blocks the blood supply to the brain and can be life threatening. Learn more about strokes, including the types, symptoms, and how treat and…. New research investigates the long-term effects of traumatic brain injury on children, as well as the importance of family in aiding recovery.

Dementia refers to symptoms that affect memory, communication, and thinking. It features in Alzheimer's disease. Learn about symptoms, stages, and…. What does the frontal lobe do? Much of Gage's left frontal lobe and prefrontal cortex were destroyed. It has been suggested that Gage was a responsible, temperate, hard-working man before his accident and afterwards he became a capricious, irreverent, trouble-making drifter.

According to this account, he seemed to have lost some of the ability to inhibit base impulses and was unable to act prudently—the types of changes we might see in someone who had a deficit in executive functions. The exact changes in Gage's personality, however, are now somewhat debated , and it is unclear if the damage he sustained was confined to the prefrontal or even frontal cortex.

Even if we don't use Gage's case as a main piece of evidence to link the prefrontal cortex to executive functions, however, there are still a number of other case studies and a great deal of experimental evidence to support the connection. Patients with prefrontal cortex damage tend to perform poorly on tasks that require the use of long-term strategies and the inhibition of impulses.

They also often display short-term memory deficits, which may help to explain some of their difficulties in planning. Patients with prefrontal cortex damage can experience blunted emotional responses, which may be another factor that negatively affects their ability to make decisions.

To understand how this works, just imagine the emotional reaction you might have to thinking about doing something you know is a bad idea—like cursing out your boss at work when you're angry.

Really giving some consideration to doing this might cause you to get a bit anxious, and because this emotion doesn't feel good, it can help you make the probably wise decision to avoid the behavior. Lateral frontal lobe: This region contains the superior frontal gyrus, which aids in self-awareness, as well as the middle frontal and inferior frontal gyrus.

The inferior frontal gyrus plays a role in language processing. Polar region: This region is home to the frontomarginal gyrus, as well as the transverse frontopolar gyri. The orbital frontal lobe contains a number of structures, including the anterior orbital gyrus, medial orbital gyrus, posterior orbital gyrus, and gyrus rectus. The orbital gyri is connected to the vagus nerve, an important part of the limbic system that coordinates and controls emotional and automatic reactions.

Some other consequences of frontal lobe damage include: Inability to engage immoral decision-making. Difficulties with planning, executive functioning, and attention. Loss of memory.

Sudden and dramatic changes in personality. Declining intelligence. Changes in emotions, including signs of depression and anxiety. Difficulty understanding social cues or relating to the emotions of other people. Changes in motor skills and spatial reasoning abilities. A range of specific syndromes. One such syndrome, reduplicative paramnesia, causes a person to believe that is or her home is actually a precise replica of another location. Sources: Frontal lobe: Functions, structure, and damage.

Medical News Today. Accessed May 11, Learn More. Frontal Lobe — Cerebral Cortex Lecturio. Published April 16, SalazarAlejandra A. Frontal lobe: why is it so important?

Health, Brain and Neuroscience. Published October 2, This article will take a closer look at the function of the frontal lobe as well as what happens when this area of the brain is injured. A famous case of frontal lobe damage is that of Phineas Gage. In , Gage was injured in an explosion that caused a railroad spike to pierce his frontal lobe.

If you have frontal lobe damage, your treatment plan may include a team of several types of healthcare professionals. In some cases, the cause of the frontal lobe damage may be permanent. One example of this is neurodegenerative diseases. In these cases, treatment may also involve medications. You have two frontal lobes: one in the right hemisphere of your brain and one in the left hemisphere of your brain. Your frontal lobes are vital for many important functions.

Damage to the frontal lobes can affect one or more of the functions of this area of your brain. An injury, stroke, infection, or neurodegenerative disease most often causes damage to the frontal lobes. Treatment depends on the cause of the damage and typically involves several types of rehabilitative therapy.