Executive Functioning and the Frontal Lobes: The Measure of Man?

Abstract

The Executive Brain is an ambitious book in which Elkhonon Goldberg attempts two feats. First, as he states, he presents “an idiosyncratic account of my own understanding of several issues of cognitive neuroscience and of the personal context that led me to write about it.” Second, he argues for the privileged position of the pre-frontal cortical area as “the most uniquely human of all the components of the human brain,” that “part of your brain that makes you who you are and defines your identity, that encapsulates your drives, your ambitions, your personality, your essence: the frontal lobes of the brain.” Goldberg more than succeeds with the former. His mastery of the literature and his skill as a teacher are readily apparent as he describes neuroanatomy and neurofunctioning using apt descriptions and telling clinical vignettes. In chapter three, for example, he introduces the frontal lobes and their associated executive functioning, using the guiding metaphor of the director, be it the CEO or orchestra leader, who coordinates the efforts of others to produce something that is greater than the sum of its parts. Chapter four provides a solid overview of neuroanatomy and the evolutionary changes resulting in the modern human brain, a structure both more cortical and more frontal than its ancestors. Chapter five continues with a skillful account of neuropsychological functioning. In addition, sprinkled throughout this book are many easily understandable accounts of such neuropsychological conditions as ADHD, Tourette’s syndrome, the dorsolateral syndrome, and the orbital frontal syndrome. But Goldberg is at his best when presenting his own highly original clinical research. Reading it, I felt in the presence of a rigorous, logical, and curious man who not only questioned accepted neuropsychological conventions but also had the power of mind to create more plausible alternatives that were remarkable in their simplicity and power of explanation. As I followed his Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Vol. 32, No. 5, September 2003 (© 2003)