Exploring the Mind: Seven Studies

Understanding the Frontal Lobe

The brain is without a doubt the most complex organ in our body. It consists of multiple regions, each focused on different tasks, that help us go about our everyday lives. The frontal lobe, located near the front of the brain, is one of the more important regions. It is one of the last regions to develop, and as a result it governs many of the higher brain functions. For example, it controls functions such as personality, regulation of emotions, memory, coordination of movement, along with many others. If all these functions had to be generalized into one main function, it would be the that the frontal lobe is what makes you you. Because of this, it can clearly be seen that damage to this region could have disastrous consequences.

Unfortunately, the frontal lobe is very susceptible to damage. Damage can occur from direct contact, tumors, or even disease. Additionally, since it has connections to many other parts of the brain, damage to those other parts could potentially harm the frontal lobe as well. When damage does occur, there are two important things to remember: different people can have different symptoms even with the same type of damage and the degree of severity of the symptoms may vary as well. In order to explore this more deeply, we can take a case study from Oliver Sacks’s An Anthropologist on Mars, Greg F.

Written by Anil Nayak

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