The Frontal Lobes

Abstract

Abstract Although this is a time of unprecedented progress in cognitive neuroscience, clinicians who evaluate and treat frontal lobe dysfunction still face many of the frustrations encountered by prior generations. Damage to the frontal lobes can disrupt in various ways a set of very complex neuroanatomical and functional systems, which for the most part remain incompletely understood. The frontal lobes make up over one-third of the human cerebral cortex and have diverse anatomical units, each with distinct connections to other cortical and subcortical regions and to each other. Although we have made progress in elucidating the connectional pattern and physiology of some of its subregions in nonhuman primates (see below), we have not had a means to map the equivalent complexity in the human brain. Paralleling the challenges presented by the anatomical complexity of the frontal lobes are those which stem from the nature of the signs and symptoms of frontal damage, since they do not lend themselves easily to quantitative analysis in a laboratory setting. Nonetheless, new findings on frontal lobe dysfunction are appearing regularly, and have provided support for some long-held suppositions as well as new ideas regarding the operations of the frontal lobes. The central role of the frontal lobes in higher cognitive activities is not in question, and there is growing evidence that frontal dysfunction may contribute to certain psychiatric disorders.