Essay about Lesions of the Prefrontal Cortex

Many parents or adults wonder why adolescents act the way they do and want answers as to why. Numerous of these actions adolescents make are because of the prefrontal cortex(PFC). The PFC isn’t developed until the mid 20s which causes teenagers to lack on seeing the consequences before they make a risky or impulsive decision. In The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, he illustrates that adolescents show impulsivity, decision making, and risk taking.

Subtle deficits in problem solving, mental flexibility and decision making are often present. In later stages, the disease spreads to the frontal lobes so that behavioural changes occur, especially changes in emotional responses and empathy.

Much research has supported the fact that there is brain structure differences in individuals diagnosed with FASD (Nunez, el al 2011). Research into the brain of individuals has discovered abnormalities in the volume and thickness of the frontal lobes (Nunez, el al 2011). This results in impairments in attention, working memory, and executive functioning that can be traced back to the frontal lobes (Nunez, el al 2011). In addition researchers have also found smaller volumes of basal ganglia, which is a group of nuclei associated with motor control and learning (Nunez, el al 2011). Furthermore, caudate nucleus, which is inside the basal ganglia has also been found to be smaller in individuals was FASD (Nunez, el al 2011). Caudate nucleus is associated with mental flexibility and behaviour inhibition (Nunez, el al 2011). The hypothalamus, which is most responsible for its link with the nervous system was also found to be smaller in individuals was FASD (Nunez, el al 2011). Moreover, the thalamus was also found to be of smaller volume and is responsible for relaying motor and sensory signals to the cerebral cortex (Nunez, el al 2011). Luckily studies have also found that the hippocampus, which required for the formation of memories was left relatively normal (Nunez, el al 2011). The most affected area has been pinpointed as being the anterior vermis, located inside 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

Creating the world's first Z-Bomb, would have to be the most dangerous thing that could happen to humans. Turning them into Zombies, it would entirely change the characteristics of a human being and its brain. Although both living, Zombies have drastic defects towards certain aspects of the body. This Z-bomb won’t necessarily turn humans into zombies, but rather give humans zombie-ish characteristics.

When a traumatic brain injury happens to the frontal “zone”, it is striking the brain’s largest lobe. The frontal lobe is anterior to the left and right cerebral hemispheres, this lobe is in charge for conscious thinking, voluntary responses, and personality traits. When someone is trying to find the right word or phrase to say, it is this part of the brain he or she may rely on. Destruction to this crucial lobe can create destruction to a person’s brilliance, attention span, and organizational efficiency, as well as the failure of

Furthering the studies of psychopathy, there are two main theories that have been used to explain this abnormalities in the brain. The first theory is called the Somatic Marker Hypothesis of Damasio (1994) which proposed that damage to the prefrontal cortex in the brain causes poor decision making abilities which shows a lack of potential development for the somatic aspects that are linked to the excitement of rewards and/or punishment. This leads to an inconsiderate attitude towards any negative consequences as well as social rules or outcomes. This theory is supported by its neurobiological equivalent which is the orbitofrontal and medial frontal cortex in the brain which is responsible for decision making and other cognitive processes. Neuropsychological evidence proves that the Somatic

The frontal lobe of the brain is involved in many things two of the most important things that relate to juvenile delinquency are their problem-solving skills and moral judgment skills. The myelination and pruning of the brain has been found to continue well into mid-20’s (Arnett,2017). This is one of the first lessons that lawmakers and people in society need to learn.

Cognitive dysfunction is a hallmark feature in neuropsychiatric disorders. Especially, domains including working memory, executive function, attention and information processing are defective.Deficits are observed in multiple domains, including working memory, executive function, attention and information processing. Disability caused by cognitive dysfunction are is frequently as debilitating as the prominent emotional disturbances. Interactions between the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex are

The Prefrontal Cortex is involved in planning of behavior, attention and judgment and the orbitofrontal cortex plays an important role in emotions and impulse control. This is related to the article because in order for people to feel empathy, their orbitofrontal cortex has to function. To act the way people do when approached by their competitors, people need their prefrontal cortex to act how they would. The article does not necessarily contradict any of the content we learned but it gives examples of how there structures in our brain aid in our behavior and in the way we act. If these parts of our brain weren’t working, people would experience impulsiveness, antisocial behavior, experience of various emotions and deficits in the ability

It is believed that a mutation in the prefrontal cortex predisposes some people to violence. The frontal lobe is what we use to make decisions and, when fully developed, allows us to think carefully about our actions before we take them. An alteration in the prefrontal cortex may make us susceptible to impulsive and rash behaviors. For example, teens tend to be more reckless than adults. The teen frontal lobe is not fully formed, which is the reason for this outcome. Teens also tend to rely on their amygdalas to make decision. The amygdala is the center for powerful emotions, such as anger, jealousy, and guilt. For example, psychopaths have been found to be void of guilt and regret as a result of “the amygdala [being] less activated when they

The frontal lobe contains two key structures that have a great impact on mood, behavior and judgment. These structures are located in the outer area of the cerebrum towards the front of the skull (Carlson, 2013). This paper will discuss the function and structure of the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (including the orbitofrontal cortex) and the Dorsolateral Cortex.

The prefrontal cortex in young children are much less adept than adults at such social understanding and planning because the major brain functions of the prefrontal

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

     Humphreys and Kumada’s research results were that people with frontal lobe damage showed difficulty in selecting task-relevant information while ignoring task-irrelevant (Humphreys & Kumada, 2002). Sometimes these people tend to get confused on what is important and what are not, as most people occasionally do. Some frontal lobe damage people struggle more with relevant information than others do. “Frontal lobe lesions only appear to affect the ability to gate or inhibit irrelevant stimulus information” (Gershberg, Jurica, Mangels, & Shimamura, 1995, p145). Research is usually just a bunch of theories, or experiments that have not been proven wrong yet. The tendency for frontal damage is that a part of the brain has been damaged or removed that helps with these functions.