Frontal lobe syndromes

Question 1

What are the 3 main brain areas involved in frontal lobe syndromes?

Answer 1

Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC)
Lateral prefrontal cortex
Anterior cingulate gyrus

Question 2

What are the 6 main symptoms of frontal lobe lesions?

Answer 2

Dysexecutive syndrome (cannot plan)
Confabulations
Disinhibition
Persistence of a single behaviour
Breaking social rules
Emotional instability (mood swings)

Question 3

Linking frontal lobes to personality, Gardini (2009) found that thrill seekers have a higher volume of what than avoidant people?

Answer 3

Grey matter in frontal lobes.

Question 4

What are the functions of the frontal lobes?

Answer 4

Decision making
Personality
Engaging with the environment
Controlling behaviour

Question 5

Confabulations are often an issue with…

Answer 5

source memory.

Question 6

What are the 4 main assessment tasks of frontal lobe damage?

Answer 6

Tower of London/Hanoi
Wisconsin Test
Stroop Task
Iowa Gambling Task

Question 7

What does the Tower of London/Hanoi task test for?

Answer 7

Planning abilities.

Question 8

What does the Wisconsin Task test for?

Answer 8

Rule extraction and categorisation skills.

Question 9

What does the Stroop task test for?

Answer 9

Attention and inhibitory control.

Question 10

What does the Iowa Gambling task test for?

Answer 10

Decision making and inhibitory control.

Question 11

People with orbiotfrontal damage continue playing which decks in the Iowa Gambling Task?

Answer 11

Bad decks

Question 12

What is the theory proposed by Norman & Shallice?

Answer 12

Supervisory Attentional System (SAS)

Question 13

Contention scheduling ensures…

Answer 13

the appropriate schema is activated.

Question 14

Contention scheduling prevents…

Answer 14

multiple actions executing at once.

Question 15

The supervisory attentional system controls…

Answer 15

contention scheduling.

Question 16

Damage to the supervisory attentional system results in…

Answer 16

the incorrect selection of actions.

Question 17

The anterior cingulate is mostly involved in…

Answer 17

inhibitory control.

Question 18

Basal ganglia are mostly involved in…

Answer 18

anticipation.

Question 19

Grafman’s (1989) Structured Event Complex (SEC) suggests that actions are stored in…

Answer 19

script-like data structures.

Question 20

According the the structured event complex, frontal damage disrupts access to________ ________. This is supported by patients being better at __________ tasks.

Answer 20

structured events; pre-structured

Question 21

What is the Somatic Marker Theory?

Answer 21

That emotional process guide behaviour, especially decision making.

Question 22

Somatic markers are used when choices are ________/_________ and overload _______ _______.

Answer 22

complex/conflicting; cognitive processes

Question 23

What frontal region processes somatic markers?

Answer 23

Ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

Question 24

Which assessment task supports the Somatic Marker Theory?

Answer 24

Iowa Gambling Task

Question 25

Who created the Somatic Marker Theory?

Answer 25

Bechara & Damasio (2006)