Prefrontal CortexAimel Ayazi & Eva Wilmots

Location within the brain

Anterior part of frontal lobes

In front of the motor and pre-motor areas

Located right beneath the forehead

Functions The psychological term for functions carried out by

the prefrontal cortex area is executive function.

Involved in planning complex cognitive behaviours, personality expressions, decision making and manages correct social behaviour

i.e. Abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, determine good and bad, better and best, same and different, future consequences of activities, prediction of outcomes, working towards a goal, expectation based on actions, and social “control”

Functions Cont’d The dorsal prefrontal cortex interconnected with brain

regions involved with attention, cognition and action, while the ventral prefrontal cortex interconnects with brain regions involved with emotion.

Receives inputs from the brainstem arousal systems = coordination between our state of arousal and our mental state.

Study 1 Aim: As psychopathic people have difficulty showing

emotions, just like patients who have suffered from frontal head injury, Dr. Shamay-Tsoory wanted to see whether or not there was a correlation between people who have suffered from frontal head injury and their ability to show emotions, and psychopaths and their ability to show emotions.

Procedure: 17 people, who had been diagnosed as psychopathic and not suffering from brain damage, and another 25 people suffering frontal lobe injury. They underwent a computerized test examining their cognitive ability to recognize feelings in another and the ability to demonstrate empathy for another’s emotions.

Results: People who have psychopathic symptoms behave as though they are suffering frontal brain damage

Study 2 Aim: researchers wanted to compare brain function in

adolescent smokers and non-smokers with a focus on the prefrontal cortex that is still developing structurally and functionally in adolescents.

Procedure: 25 adolescent smokes + non-smokers between the ages of 15 – 21 were asked to perform a test that activated the prefrontal cortex. Test was called Stop-Signal Test (SST). They had to press a button as quickly as possible every time a lighted arrow appears – unless an auditory tone was played, then they had to resist from pressing the button. It was a test of a person’s ability to inhibit an action.

Results: They found that the teen smokers had less activity in the prefrontal cortex than the non-smokers. The greater a teen’s addiction to nicotine, the less active the prefrontal cortex was, suggesting that as the prefrontal cortex continues to develop during the critical period of adolescence, smoking may influence brain development and affect the function of the prefrontal cortex.

Study 3Aim: Researchers used brain imaging to examine the

effects of emotion on working memory function in children with pediatric bipolar disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Procedure: children, ages 10-18 were asked to remember the face and to press a button in the MR-scanner if they saw the same face that was presented two trials earlier. Study involved 23 non-medicated children with bipolar disorder, 14 non-medicated children with ADHD and 19 healthy controls.

Results: they found that while both disorders show dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex in comparison to healthy controls, the ADHD group had the more severe dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex.

Dysfunctional Prefrontal Cortex Massive Personality

changes (ie. Phineas Gage) Links to schizophrenia,

ADHD, depression and bi polar disorder

Effects decision making (weighing risk and consequences)

One of the most important areas in the brain, is also one of the most susceptible to injury

Prefrontal Cortex