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Evidence appears to show how and where frontal lobe works
March 02, 2009PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - A Brown University study of stroke victims has produced evidence that the frontal lobe of the human brain controls decision-making along a continuum from abstract to concrete, from front to back.
Abstract actions can be controlled at an abstract level, such as deciding to make a sandwich, or at more concrete and specific levels, such as choosing a sequence of movements that make the sandwich.
The scientific data supports preexisting theories that abstract decisions about action take place in the front of the frontal lobe, the back portion controls the capacity for concrete decisions, and the progression from front to back forms a gradient from abstract to concrete.
The Brown researchers are among the first to show that specific areas of the frontal cortex are needed for different levels of abstract decision.
The finding, to be detailed March 1 in the journal Nature Neuroscience, represents a huge leap in comprehending how the brain supports higher level cognition and intelligent behavior. It could lead to advances in everything from the treatment of strokes to understanding how humans develop thought. Researchers from the University of California-Berkeley also participated in the study.
"It is among the strongest evidence to date for a systemic organization of the frontal cortex," said lead author David Badre, an assistant professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences at Brown University.
The frontal cortex of brain has been long known to affect the internal control of behavior. It controls the capacity to plan, reason, conduct higher-level thinking and connect what we know about the world to how we behave.
Badre and his collaborators came to their conclusion by studying stroke victims who suffered damage to different parts of the frontal lobe. The patients all suffered a stroke at least six months prior to testing. All were screened with an MRI or CT scan to determine where any lesions existed in the brain post-stroke.
The scientists recruited 11 patients - seven men and four women, ranging from age 45 to 73. A 12th patient was recruited but could not perform any of the tests involved.
Researchers gave the patients four different tests that ultimately required selecting a finger-press response. For example, the first test would show a color such as red, which required an index finger push. Blue would trigger the middle finger. The test would then become more difficult by adding more alternate finger presses.
Patients faced greater challenges in selecting a response as subsequent, progressive tests became more complex, with more abstract options.
Badre and colleagues found that damage at a given location affected more abstract decisions but left intact the capacity for more concrete decisions. "If there is damage in a given spot, it will affect all higher (decision-making) functions but not lower functions," Badre said.
The National Institutes of Health, Veterans Administration Research Service and a National Research Service Award supported the research.
Brown University
The Brown researchers are among the first to show that specific areas of the frontal cortex are needed for different levels of abstract decision.
The finding, to be detailed March 1 in the journal Nature Neuroscience, represents a huge leap in comprehending how the brain supports higher level cognition and intelligent behavior. It could lead to advances in everything from the treatment of strokes to understanding how humans develop thought. Researchers from the University of California-Berkeley also participated in the study.
"It is among the strongest evidence to date for a systemic organization of the frontal cortex," said lead author David Badre, an assistant professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences at Brown University.
The frontal cortex of brain has been long known to affect the internal control of behavior. It controls the capacity to plan, reason, conduct higher-level thinking and connect what we know about the world to how we behave.
Badre and his collaborators came to their conclusion by studying stroke victims who suffered damage to different parts of the frontal lobe. The patients all suffered a stroke at least six months prior to testing. All were screened with an MRI or CT scan to determine where any lesions existed in the brain post-stroke.
The scientists recruited 11 patients - seven men and four women, ranging from age 45 to 73. A 12th patient was recruited but could not perform any of the tests involved.
Researchers gave the patients four different tests that ultimately required selecting a finger-press response. For example, the first test would show a color such as red, which required an index finger push. Blue would trigger the middle finger. The test would then become more difficult by adding more alternate finger presses.
Patients faced greater challenges in selecting a response as subsequent, progressive tests became more complex, with more abstract options.
Badre and colleagues found that damage at a given location affected more abstract decisions but left intact the capacity for more concrete decisions. "If there is damage in a given spot, it will affect all higher (decision-making) functions but not lower functions," Badre said.
The National Institutes of Health, Veterans Administration Research Service and a National Research Service Award supported the research.
Brown University
Frontal Lobe Current Events and Frontal Lobe News RSSNew UAB Study Sheds Light on Brain's Response to Distress, Unexpected Events
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Is Tetris good for the brain?
Brain imaging shows playing Tetris leads to a thicker cortex and may also increase brain efficiency.
Researchers find alcoholics display abnormal brain activity when processing facial expressions
Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that individuals who have a long history of alcoholism, but who have been abstinent for at least a month up to many years, showed abnormal brain activity when looking at facial expressions of others.
Aspirin and similar drugs may be associated with brain microbleeds in older adults
Individuals who take aspirin or other medications that prevent blood clotting by inhibiting the accumulation of platelets appear more likely to have tiny, asymptomatic areas of bleeding in the brain.
Blood test predicts chance of dementia
Frontal lobe dementia (Frontotemporal Dementia, FTD) strikes people at an earlier age. After Alzheimer's disease, FTD is the form of dementia that occurs most frequently in patients younger than 65.
Delusions associated with consistent pattern of brain injury
A new study provides a novel theory for how delusions arise and why they persist. NYU Langone Medical Center researcher Orrin Devinsky, MD, performed an in-depth analysis of patients with certain delusions and brain disorders revealing a consistent pattern of injury to the frontal lobe and right hemisphere of the human brain.
EEGs show brain differences between poor and rich kids
University of California, Berkeley, researchers have shown for the first time that the brains of low-income children function differently from the brains of high-income kids.
Simple brain mechanisms explain arbitrary human visual decisions
Mark Twain, a skeptic of the idea of free will, argues in his essay "What Is Man?" that humans do not command their minds or the opinions they form.
A direct gaze enhances face perception
Gaze direction is significant for the processing of visual information from the human face. Researchers in an Academy of Finland funded research project have discovered that the visual system of the brain processes another person's face more efficiently when the person's gaze is straight ahead than when the gaze is averted.
A baby's smile is a natural high
The baby's smile that gladdens a mother's heart also lights up the reward centers of her brain, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in a report that appears in the journal Pediatrics today.
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