Psychopathology of early frontal lobe damage: Dependence on cycles of development

AbstractA new theory of frontal lobe development is presented in which the role of the human frontal lobes during normal development and the psychopathological consequences of early frontal lobe injury are explored. Analyses of the development of human electroencephalograph (EEG) coherence indicate that there are oscillations and cyclic growth processes along the mediolateral and anterior-posterior planes of the brain. The cycles of EEG coherence are interpreted as repetitive sequences of increasing and decreasing synaptic effectiveness that reflects a convergence process that narrows the disparity between structure and function by slowly sculpting and reshaping the brain's microanatomy. This process is modeled as a developmental spiral staircase in which brain structures are periodically revisited resulting in stepwise increases in differentiation and integration. The frontal lobes play a crucial role because they are largely responsible for the selection and pruning of synaptic contacts throughout the postnatal period. A mathematical model of cycles of synaptic effectiveness is presented in which the frontal lobes behave as gentle synaptic “predators” whereas posterior cortical regions behave as synaptic “prey” in a periodic reorganization process. The psychopathological consequences of early frontal lobe damage are discussed in the context of this model.

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Psychiatry and the Frontal Lobes

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.3109/00048679009062894 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 113-132 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Janice D. Russell ◽

Milton G. Roxanas

Keyword(s):

Frontal Lobe ◽

Psychiatric Symptoms ◽

Brain Area ◽

Neuropsychological Testing ◽

Frontal Lobes ◽

Biological Data ◽

Frontal Lobe Damage ◽

Psychiatric Conditions ◽

The Brain

The frontal lobes of the brain have long been regarded as enigmatic in their function and perhaps should be considered even more so in states of dysfunction. Observed associations between structural lesions and psychiatric symptoms and the demonstration of disturbed function and morphology in the frontal lobes of individuals suffering from major psychiatric disorders have led to increased interest in this brain area. Psychiatrists have been particularly concerned with seeking the aetiogenesis of common diagnostic entities and this article attempts to synthesize the available facts. A brief overview of relevant biological data precedes a description of methods of neuropsychological testing and the clinical features arising from frontal lobe damage. A discussion of the role of the frontal lobes in some aspects of personality function follows. Neuropsychiatric features associated with known frontal lobe pathology are described, prefacing a discussion of those psychiatric conditions where an aetiological role for frontal lobe dysfunction has been proposed.

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The Lower Quadrant Leucotomy

Journal of Mental Science ◽

10.1192/bjp.98.412.389 ◽

1952 ◽

Vol 98 (412) ◽

pp. 389-400 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

F. T. Thorpe ◽

James Hardman

Keyword(s):

Frontal Lobe ◽

Human Subjects ◽

Frontal Lobes ◽

Lower Quadrant ◽

Pathological Lesions ◽

Abstract Thought ◽

Frontal Lobe Damage ◽

Complex Planning ◽

Frontal Lobectomy

In recent years efforts have been made to analyse the part played by the frontal lobes in the integration of personality. The pioneer work of Bianchi (1922) based on pathological lesions in human subjects, and on experimental bilateral ablations in monkeys, dogs and foxes, still appears to be as true to-day as when originally enunciated. Sherrington (1901) also described the changes following destruction of the frontal lobes. It was noted that such animals lost the power to learn and to enjoy themselves. They had no curiosity, but became restless, hyperactive and easily distracted. Brickner (1936) studied over many years a patient with bilateral frontal lobectomy who showed a diminished ability to synthesize abstract thoughts. Goldstein (1941) found that patients with frontal lobe damage lose their power for abstract thought and this is replaced by concrete behaviour, as shown by object grouping tests and their use of words. Similarly Penfield and Hebb (1940), in a case of extensive lobectomy for an infiltrating oligodendroglioma in an intelligent housewife, described a lack of ability for complex planning, such as is necessary for preparing a meal of several courses. Jefferson (1937) was unable to find any deficiency in cases of unilateral lobectomy. Rylander (1939), on the contrary, after lobectomy for tumours was able to detect changes similar to those found by Goldstein, and in cases with frontal lobe injury he found a lack of social sense. These patients were embarrassingly outspoken, and sometimes showed excessive activity or fatigue. Hebb (1945) concluded that studies on pathological lesions of the frontal lobes were not very helpful, owing to the lack of precision of the lesions due to the uncertain extent of the pathology.

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Brenda Milner: Pioneer of the Study of the Human Frontal Lobes

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnhum.2021.786167 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Bryan Kolb

Keyword(s):

Frontal Lobe ◽

Intractable Epilepsy ◽

Human Memory ◽

Frontal Lobes ◽

Montreal Neurological Institute ◽

Frontal Lobe Function ◽

Wide Range ◽

And Function ◽

And Behavior ◽

Frontal Lobectomy

Although the behavioral effects of damage to the frontal lobes date back to at least the late 19th century even midway through the 20th century very little was known about human frontal lobe function and there was a general consensus that the frontal lobe did not play a key role in cognition. This all changed when Brenda Milner published a chapter in a 1964 volume entitled: The Frontal Granular Cortex and Behavior. Milner’s chapter, “Some effects of frontal lobectomy in man,” was the first systematic study of the effect of frontal lobe excisions on cognition in human patients. Milner had access to a unique population of frontal excision patients at the Montreal Neurological Institute that were being treated by Wilder Penfield and his associates for a wide range of neurological disorders, including intractable epilepsy. Milner and her colleagues engaged in a more than 50-year study that has had a formidable impact on our understanding of frontal lobe function. Paralleling studies of frontal lobe function in non-humans they influence on understanding the evolution and function of the prefrontal cortex of mammals. Thus, although Brenda Milner is best known for her studies of human memory, she has had an equally important contribution to our understanding of the frontal lobes.

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Errors on the Trail Making Test Are Associated with Right Hemispheric Frontal Lobe Damage in Stroke Patients

Behavioural Neurology ◽

10.1155/2015/309235 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2015 ◽

pp. 1-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Bruno Kopp ◽

Nina Rösser ◽

Sandra Tabeling ◽

Hans Jörg Stürenburg ◽

Bianca de Haan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Frontal Lobe ◽

Cognitive Flexibility ◽

Completion Time ◽

Frontal Lobes ◽

Behavioral Measure ◽

Trail Making Test ◽

Left Frontal Lobe ◽

Frontal Lobe Damage ◽

Trail Making ◽

Frontal Lesions

Measures of performance on theTrail Making Test (TMT)are among the most popular neuropsychological assessment techniques. Completion time onTMT-Ais considered to provide a measure of processing speed, whereas completion time onTMT-Bis considered to constitute a behavioral measure of the ability to shift between cognitive sets (cognitive flexibility), commonly attributed to the frontal lobes. However, empirical evidence linking performance on theTMT-Bto localized frontal lesions is mostly lacking. Here, we examined the association of frontal lesions following stroke withTMT-Bperformance measures (i.e., completion time and completion accuracy measures) using voxel-based lesion-behavior mapping, with a focus on right hemispheric frontal lobe lesions. Our results suggest that the number of errors, but not completion time on theTMT-B, is associated with right hemispheric frontal lesions. This finding contradicts common clinical practice—the use of completion time on theTMT-Bto measure cognitive flexibility, and it underscores the need for additional research on the association between cognitive flexibility and the frontal lobes. Further work in a larger sample, including left frontal lobe damage and with more power to detect effects of right posterior brain injury, is necessary to determine whether our observation is specific for right frontal lesions.

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Implications of Extended Inhibitory Neuron Development

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms22105113 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (10) ◽

pp. 5113

Author(s):

Jae-Yeon Kim ◽

Mercedes F. Paredes

Keyword(s):

Neural Circuit ◽

Inhibitory Neuron ◽

Postnatal Period ◽

Specific Pattern ◽

Inhibitory Neurons ◽

Gabaergic Interneuron ◽

Gabaergic Interneurons ◽

Neuron Development ◽

Cortical Regions ◽

Circuit Formation

A prolonged developmental timeline for GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid)-expressing inhibitory neurons (GABAergic interneurons) is an amplified trait in larger, gyrencephalic animals. In several species, the generation, migration, and maturation of interneurons take place over several months, in some cases persisting after birth. The late integration of GABAergic interneurons occurs in a region-specific pattern, especially during the early postnatal period. These changes can contribute to the formation of functional connectivity and plasticity, especially in the cortical regions responsible for higher cognitive tasks. In this review, we discuss GABAergic interneuron development in the late gestational and postnatal forebrain. We propose the protracted development of interneurons at each stage (neurogenesis, neuronal migration, and network integration), as a mechanism for increased complexity and cognitive flexibility in larger, gyrencephalic brains. This developmental feature of interneurons also provides an avenue for environmental influences to shape neural circuit formation.

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Structural and functional brain asymmetries in the early phases of life: a scoping review

Brain Structure and Function ◽

10.1007/s00429-021-02256-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Patrizia Bisiacchi ◽

Elisa Cainelli

Keyword(s):

Scoping Review ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Final Analysis ◽

Brain Structures ◽

Large Variability ◽

Speech Stimuli ◽

Morphological Asymmetry ◽

Cerebral Asymmetries ◽

The Right ◽

And Function

AbstractAsymmetry characterizes the brain in both structure and function. Anatomical asymmetries explain only a fraction of functional variability in lateralization, with structural and functional asymmetries developing at different periods of life and in different ways. In this work, we perform a scoping review of the cerebral asymmetries in the first brain development phases. We included all English-written studies providing direct evidence of hemispheric asymmetries in full-term neonates, foetuses, and premature infants, both at term post-conception and before. The final analysis included 57 studies. The reviewed literature shows large variability in the used techniques and methodological procedures. Most structural studies investigated the temporal lobe, showing a temporal planum more pronounced on the left than on the right (although not all data agree), a morphological asymmetry already present from the 29th week of gestation. Other brain structures have been poorly investigated, and the results are even more discordant. Unlike data on structural asymmetries, functional data agree with each other, identifying a leftward dominance for speech stimuli and an overall dominance of the right hemisphere in all other functional conditions. This generalized dominance of the right hemisphere for all conditions (except linguistic stimuli) is in line with theories stating that the right hemisphere develops earlier and that its development is less subject to external influences because it sustains functions necessary to survive.

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Sex Steroids and Human Behavior: Implications for Developmental Psychopathology

CNS Spectrums ◽

10.1017/s1092852900022896 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 75-88 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Gerianne M. Alexander ◽

Bradley S. Peterson

Keyword(s):

Sex Differences ◽

Human Behavior ◽

Sex Steroids ◽

Developmental Psychopathology ◽

Mammalian Species ◽

Brain Structures ◽

Postnatal Life ◽

Brain Structure And Function ◽

Atypical Development ◽

And Function

AbstractIn a variety of mammalian species, prenatal androgens organize brain structures and functions that are later activated by steroid hormones in postnatal life. In humans, studies of individuals with typical and atypical development suggest that sex differences in reproductive and nonreproductive behavior derive in part from similar prenatal and postnatal steroid effects on brain development. This paper provides a summary of research investigating hormonal influences on human behavior and describes how sex differences in the prevalences and natural histories of developmental psychopathologies may be consistent with these steroid effects. An association between patterns of sexual differentiation and specific forms of psychopathology suggests novel avenues for assessing the effects of sex steroids on brain structure and function, which may in turn improve our understanding of typical and atypical development in women and men.

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Social and emotional functions in three patients with medial frontal lobe damage including the anterior cingulate cortex

Cognitive Neuropsychiatry ◽

10.1080/13546800444000245 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 369-388 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Amee Baird ◽

Bonnie‐Kate Dewar ◽

Hugo Critchley ◽

Ray Dolan ◽

Tim Shallice ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Frontal Lobe ◽

Cingulate Cortex ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Social And Emotional ◽

Frontal Lobe Damage

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Flexible annotation atlas of the mouse brain: combining and dividing brain structures of the Allen Brain Atlas while maintaining anatomical hierarchy

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-85807-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Norio Takata ◽

Nobuhiko Sato ◽

Yuji Komaki ◽

Hideyuki Okano ◽

Kenji F. Tanaka

Keyword(s):

Mouse Brain ◽

Brain Structures ◽

Brain Atlas ◽

Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽

Brain Science ◽

Step Procedure ◽

Public Resources ◽

Large Brain ◽

Magnetic Resonance Imaging Mri ◽

And Function

AbstractA brain atlas is necessary for analyzing structure and function in neuroimaging research. Although various annotation volumes (AVs) for the mouse brain have been proposed, it is common in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the mouse brain that regions-of-interest (ROIs) for brain structures (nodes) are created arbitrarily according to each researcher’s necessity, leading to inconsistent ROIs among studies. One reason for such a situation is the fact that earlier AVs were fixed, i.e. combination and division of nodes were not implemented. This report presents a pipeline for constructing a flexible annotation atlas (FAA) of the mouse brain by leveraging public resources of the Allen Institute for Brain Science on brain structure, gene expression, and axonal projection. A mere two-step procedure with user-specified, text-based information and Python codes constructs FAA with nodes which can be combined or divided objectively while maintaining anatomical hierarchy of brain structures. Four FAAs with total node count of 4, 101, 866, and 1381 were demonstrated. Unique characteristics of FAA realized analysis of resting-state functional connectivity (FC) across the anatomical hierarchy and among cortical layers, which were thin but large brain structures. FAA can improve the consistency of whole brain ROI definition among laboratories by fulfilling various requests from researchers with its flexibility and reproducibility.

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