The role of the frontal lobes has often been described as a 'paradox' or a 'riddle'. Ascribed to this region has been the loftiest of functions (e.g. executive; seat of wisdom); others contested that the frontal lobes played no special role. There has also been controversy about the unity or diversity of functions related to the frontal lobes. Based on the analysis of the effects of lesions of ...

PURPOSE To investigate the feasibility of utilizing brain stiffness as a potential biomarker for behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients. Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is a noninvasive technique for evaluating the mechanical properties of brain tissue in vivo. MRE has demonstrated decreased brain stiffness in patients with Alzheimer's disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS...

OBJECTIVES The clinical neuropsychological, neuroradiological, and neuropathological description of two patients presenting with a frontal gait disturbance. METHODS Clinical case note review, neuropsychological assessment, functional imaging with (15)O(2) and (18)F-fluorodopa PET, and neuropathology. RESULTS Both patients presented with frontal gait impairment and only later developed more ...

One of the most pervasive assumptions about human brain evolution is that it involved relative enlargement of the frontal lobes. We show that this assumption is without foundation. Analysis of five independent data sets using correctly scaled measures and phylogenetic methods reveals that the size of human frontal lobes, and of specific frontal regions, is as expected relative to the size of ot...

Goldberg (1985) has argued that disruption of the mesolimbic/ mesocortical dopamine system by long-term neuroleptic treatment may be responsible for producing the tardive dysmentia syndrome (Wilson et al. 1983), which can be seen as similar to the pseudopsychopathic presentation sometimes observed following damage to orbitomedial frontal cortex (Blumer and Benson 1975; Damasio 1979). Similarly,...

Alcohol and substance abuse disorders involve continued use of substances despite negative consequences, i.e. loss of behavioral control of drug use. The frontal-cortical areas of the brain oversee behavioral control through executive functions. Executive functions include abstract thinking, motivation, planning, attention to tasks and inhibition of impulsive responses. Impulsiveness generally ...

Until the mid 1990s, available evidence regarding neurocognitive aging could be summarized in a simple statement: cognitive deficits in healthy older adults are largest for tasks that are highly dependent on executive control processes because these processes are mediated by the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which is the region most disrupted by healthy aging. This view, known as the frontal lobe hy...

BACKGROUND Animal and human newborn studies suggest that exposure to cocaine in utero delays glial maturation and white matter myelination. Postmortem data show that in the frontal and temporal lobes, white matter myelination continues into middle age. Recent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data have confirmed continued white matter volume increase in these regions, reaching a maximum at age 4...