The Frontal Lobes. Development, Function and Pathology

The frontal lobes and their functional properties are recognised as crucial to establishing our identity as autonomous human beings. This book provides a broad introductory overview of this unique brain region. In an accessible and readable style it covers the evolutionary significance of the frontal lobes, typical and atypical development pathways, the role played in normal cognition, memory and emotion, and in damaged states, resulting in a range of neurological syndromes and psychiatric disturbances. The coverage integrates current theoretical knowledge with observations of both normal and disturbed behaviour across the lifespan. The result is an easy to read review of this fascinating and involved field suitable for graduate students in neuropsychology and psychology, clinicians from the fields of neurology, neurosurgery or psychiatry, and researchers engaged in neuroscientific investigations.

• An introductory book that contains up-to-date information about some major fields within frontal lobe research • Contains theoretical chapters and chapters about clinical aspects on frontal lobe dysfunction • Covers the full human lifespan and discusses evolutionary aspects on frontal lobe functions

Contents

Foreword; Introduction; 1. Evolutionary aspects on the frontal lobes Jarl Risberg; 2. Organization of the principal pathways of prefrontal lateral, medial and orbitofrontal cortices in primates and implications for their collaborative interaction in executive function Helen Barbas; 3. Human prefrontal cortex: processes and representations Jordan Grafman; 4. A microcircuit model of prefrontal functions: ying and yang of reverberatory neurodynamics in cognition Xiao-Jing Wang; 5. Prefrontal cortex: typical and atypical development Maureen Dennis; 6. Case studies of focal pre-frontal lesions in man David Loring and Kimford Meador; 7. Left pre-frontal function and semantic organization during encoding and retrieval in healthy and psychiatric populations Daniel Ragland; 8. Clinical symptoms and neuropathology in organic dementing disorders affecting the frontal lobes Arne Brun and Lars Gustafson.

Review

'The mysteries of the prefrontal cortex continue to fascinate new generations of psychiatrists, neurologists and cognitive neurologists, and this edited volume provides a welcome addition to the literature on this topic.' Psychological medicine 2007