An Introduction To Your Brain’s Frontal Lobe
The frontal lobe of your brain is extremely important in almost everything you do. The main feature that makes human beings’ brains different from those of our nearest animal ancestors is the enlarged cerebrum. The cerebrum is the outer layer or “grey matter,” that wraps up everything else.
It consists of four lobes. Just as its name suggests, the frontal lobe is the furthest forward. It’s also the biggest of all of your lobes. Let’s look at exactly what the frontal lobe does and some symptoms of frontal lobe damage.
Thinking And Remembering
The most important job of the frontal lobe is to handle tasks related to cognition and memory. When you’re consciously thinking, you’re using your frontal lobe. All sorts of analytical tasks are done by the frontal lobe, from the very difficult to very simple. It also plays a key role in your mental flexibility and problem-solving skills.
Your Five Senses
It also plays a key role in processing sensory information. Whenever you touch, smell, hear, see or taste something, it registers in the frontal lobe. However, this isn’t the only area of the brain that’s involved in sensation.
Your Radiant Personality
To a large extent, the frontal lobe is where your personality resides. People who have trauma to this area sometimes experience drastic changes in personality. Recent studies also suggest that this might be the area in the brain that handles your sense of humor.
Mood Control
The frontal lobe is where your emotional control center. This is what allows us to control our moods. When there’s damage to the frontal lobe, one of the telltale signs is a loss of mood control. Not all emotions are handled here; the more “primitive” emotions like rage and fear are controlled by the brain’s limbic system. The frontal lobe could be said to control the higher emotions.
Speech And Movement
Finally, the frontal lobe plays a key role in speech and motor coordination. Since it is often the part of the brain-damaged in injuries, we often see brain trauma sufferers who lose their coordination and ability to speak clearly (although this can also be due to damage to the cerebellum, which also controls motor coordination).
Damage To The Frontal Lobe
The frontal lobe is one of the brain’s most damaged parts and damage here can cause quite dramatic changes. These can include mood swings, changes in personality, and behavior that’s socially inappropriate such as laughing at the wrong time. There may also be problems with coordination, cognitive functions such as problem-solving, and memory. Serious damage here can result in paralysis.
You can basically think of your frontal lobe as the conscious control center of your brain. It’s the largest of the lobes and it handles many of the brain’s thinking functions.