The PFC, Executive Function, and Dysfunction Essay

The frontal lobe is located at the front of the brain and is associated with reasoning, motor skills, higher level cognition, and expressive language.

1.The frontal lobe is made up of four main lobes. It's the largest lobe. The frontal lobe structure is located in the front of our heads, behind our foreheads. It is set in the front of both cerebral hemispheres and it is placed the closest to the temporal lobe.The frontal and parietal lobe is separated by the central sulcus.

Brain function is essential for your whole body to function properly. It is important to know these functions and what they do in order to understand how TBI affects these parts of the brain. The front of the brain is known as the Forebrain. The forebrain is the largest part of the brain and it contains the thalamus, hypothalamus and limbic system. The thalamus acts as the sensory relay center of the brain and is responsible for directing signals to the correct areas. It receives all sensory inputs except for smell. The hypothalamus governs drives such as sex, aggression and hunger. The limbic system is a group of structures that are involved with emotions, drives and memory. The midbrain contains structures that are used for coordinated movement, sleep and arousal. It contains the reticular formation and if it becomes damaged you wouldn’t be alert or possibly not even conscious. The hindbrain contains the medulla, pons and cerebellum and is located at the back of the brain. The medulla is responsible for respiration and heartbeat, two necessary functions needed to survive. Pons are involved in movement, sleeping, waking up and dreaming. The cerebellum coordinates balance and muscle

Another research shows that by doing cognitive reappraisal or reinterpreting the meaning of an emotional stimulus, would increase the activity of prefrontal cortex. Person with greater activation of the prefrontal cortex is very important in resilience because it enables the person to recover faster from a negative emotion such as sadness, anger, and fear. Activation of PFC also helps to facilitate rational planning and behavior (Acton, 2012).

There have been various studies which have attempted to investigate whether brain dysfunction can lead to certain defects, and damage to the prefrontal cortex is an area of research that over the years has shown to have negative effects on behaviour, cognition and emotions. The prefrontal cortex is situated on the frontal lobes of the brain and the frontal lobes are generally concerned with discouraging unsuitable and inapt behaviours. The prefrontal cortex usually play a fundamental role in one’s decision making, organisation of information and planning. Hence, any damage to the prefrontal cortex leads to a lack in decision making and an inability to plan.

The hindbrain, located directly above the spinal cord, contains the medulla, pons, and cerebellum.The medulla controls breathing, heart rate, swallowing, digestion, and maintaining an up right posture. As well, the medulla is where nerves from the left brain transfer to the right and nerves from the right brain transfer to the left. Below the medulla are the pons. The pons control sleep and arousal. Behind both the medulla and the pons is the cerebellum. The cerebellum is involved in regulation and coordination of body movements and learning.

Although examining processes presents difficulties, studying patients who have sustained brain damage can provide insights into parts that play a role in cognitive processes. Findings from case studies are extrapolated to the general population to provide an insight into normal cognition. An early example and often-cited case study is Phineas Gage who suffered damage to his frontal lobe because of an accident in 1848; prior to the accident, he was friendly and dependable, however after the accident, he became unreliable and his social skills suffered, this suggests the frontal lobe is involved in planning and social skills. Damasio (1994, (cited in Jansari, 2010)) recreated damage sustained by Gage, after a patient exhibited the same changes in behaviour after undergoing surgery to remove a tumour in the frontal lobe. The recreation confirmed the suggestions made at the time of Phineas Gage, thus providing an insight into how a part of the brain the frontal lobe in this case is involved in cognitive functioning.

The prefrontal cortex is very important part in our brain even though scientists use to not agree with this. The prefrontal cortex is found in the frontal lobe of your brain and is responsible for the reasoning, planning, deciding, adapting, and impulse control. This means if this section of someone’s brain is missing they wouldn’t be able to make decisions.

The parietal lobe is responsible for our motor co-ordination; motor impulses to the muscles are

as it is involved in several adaptive tasks in brain regions of young infants (McEwen et al. 2013). The plasticity of the PFC has been known to being significant for the functionality of cognitive tasks in children (McEwen et al. 2013). Basic elements such as rationalizing and decision-making are part of critical thinking and neuronal components in the brain (McEwen et al. 2013). The brain is the most significant part of the body that is designed to alternate in response to life event that change people’s lives (McEwen et al. 2013). Plasticity in growing stages of a child’s life has evolved in order to provide children with the best chances of proliferation, cell expansion and reproduction (McEwen et al. 2013). Anatomy and physiology methods that are associated with the PFC are quite interesting in how they relate with plasticity and interconnecting information (McEwen et al. 2013). The neurons that are interconnected and share a range of extrinsic connectivity act as basic units for functionality of sending messages and accepting it (Halliwell et al. 2013).

Frontal lobe - The frontal lobe is responsible for higher executive functions such as planning,

The Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) is part of the frontal lobe, one of the most complex parts of the brain and among the last areas to develop. According to numerous neuroimaging studies, it may not be fully mature until a person’s mid-20s. The DLFPC has numerous connections with other parts of the brain and helps integrate information from different systems.

The lobes of the cerebral cortex include the Frontal (blue in the figure), Temporal (green), Occipital (red), and Parietal lobes (yellow).

The medial side of the temporal lobe contains the hippocampal formation as well as the uncus and nearby cortex. Near the hippocampus and temporal pole, a small almond shaped structure called the amygdala can be found. There are actually amygdalae in the human brain, one on each side of the head. The amygdalae create an indentation in the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle and are bound by white matter. The temporal lobe is separated from the parietal and frontal lobes the posterior ramus of the lateral sulcus. The lateral surface posterior to the lateral sulcus is indented by the inferior temporal sulci and posterior temporal sulci, which outlines the superior temporal gyri, inferior temporal gyri, and medial temporal gyri. The occipital sulcus represents the divide between the medial side inferior temporal gyri and the lateral side, which includes the posterior and inferior temporal sulci. Towards the tip of the stem created by the lateral sulcus, the temporal pole can be seen. Below the temporal pole is the rhinal sulcus. On the superior surface of the temporal lobe, there are two ridges known as the transverse temporal gyri that form the primary auditory cortex. The temporal lobe is connected to the other lobes of the cerebral cortex by association

While the prefrontal cortex may take the longest to develop fully, it is not for loss because it is also where the most advanced cognitive functions occur. The development of the prefrontal cortex includes: “proliferation and migration of neurons, growth of dendrites, the formation of neural micro- and macro-circuits through efferent / afferent axonal projections, and the fine-tuning of synaptic contacts and neuronal density steered by experience” (Schubert, Martens, & Kolk, 2015, p. 797). Specific time-critical transcription factors, induction, migration, and axon guidance play a role in the initial phase of development of the prefrontal cortex (Schubert et al., 2015). Social interactions as well as learned activities help “prune” the connections overtime by causing the cell death of unused connections. These important developmental factors and connections in the prefrontal cortex are then joined with other areas of the brain, which in turn allows for the distinct region of the prefrontal cortex (Schubert et al., 2015). The prefrontal cortex is associated with the functions of cognitive behaviors, personality expression, decision making, and social behavior. Because of this, we can see that any damage to this area could cause a neurodevelopmental disability. For example, a disruption in one of the developmental processes of the prefrontal cortex, such as