A dysregulation of executive functions that is associated with frontal lobe damage. Encompasses emotional, motivational, behavioral and cognitive deficits.
Dysexecutive syndrome
Particular damage is in the prefrontal cortex
Could impair planning and organization, could manifest as difficulties in inhibiting inappropriate responses and controlling impulses
Confabulation
Also known as "honest lying" and involves patients who provide information or act based on information that is false and inappropriate in context
Confabulation
The pathological production of false memories
A disruption in memory processes characterized by the production of false or distorted memories w/o the intention to deceive. False memories are fabricated and may be believable to the individual themselves
Disinhibition syndrome
In cognitive neuroscience refers to a set of symptoms characterized by a lack of inhibition or impulse control, often resulting in impulsive behaviors, poor judgment, and difficulty regulating emotions and actions
Disinhibition syndrome
Typically arises from dysfunction or damage to brain regions involved in executive functioning and inhibitory control, particularly the frontal lobes of the brain
Can result from various neurological conditions, including traumatic brain injury, stroke, frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and certain psychiatric disorders
Dysfunction or damage to frontal lobe structures, particularly the prefrontal cortex, can disrupt inhibitory control mechanisms and lead to disinhibited behaviors
Phineas Gage
Famous case study who had damage to their left prefrontal cortex and after surgery had difficulty with decision making and also had a personality shift
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)
A neuropsychological test to examine task-switching. Participants are given an additional stack of cards and are asked to sort them into four piles below the four cards already on the table with no explicit criteria on how to sort them.
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)
Studies suggest frontal lobe damage tend to do worse than posterior damage and damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal area tend to perform the poorest
One component is task-or set switching
Perseveration
Patients with frontal lobe damage often exhibit the behavior of repeating the same action or thought over and over again
Perseveration
Explained by the supervisory attentional system
Disruptions to mechanism that code for previously completed tasks or goals could lead to preservation
Error-related negativity (ERN)
A particular set of brain mechanisms that helps to monitor our performance and detect errors, evidence comes from (ERN), an ERP signal
Error-related negativity (ERN)
Linked to error monitoring because its amplitude increases under conditions in which response accuracy is emphasized versus speed, and because the larger the error, the larger the amplitude of the ERN
Arises from rostral regions of the anterior cingulate, located on the medial portion of the frontal lobe
Working memory
Is used to keep information on-line to control behaviors and acts as a sort of mental scratch pad during everyday actions
Multiple demand (MD) network
Frontal lobes support executive function in undifferentiated manner – same set of brain regions becomes activated across a wide variety of tasks
Concept of Multiple Demand System is utilized for executive processing across many different domains including language, memory, and math
Parietal lobe, basal ganglia, and cerebellum are part of the MD system as well
Domain-general
Process information from multiple domains
Domain-specific
Process information from one domain but not others