Understanding the Frontal Lobe of the Brain: Fractioning the Prefrontal Lobes and the Associated Executive Functions

The frontal lobes function much like the conductor of an orchestra whose job it is to organize the tasks of each section of the orchestra in order to produce a cohesive result, namely the music. If the conductor is impaired in some way the various sections of the orchestra may still possess the ability to create music, but without the direction of the conductor the result may very well be unorganized cacophony (Goldberg, 2009). Thus, study of executive functioning as a phenomenon of the frontal areas holds promise for practical application to real-life problems. Indeed, there is currently a dearth of executive functioning therapies available for those impacted by damaged frontal lobes or connecting pathways (Levine et al., 2011). This book is an attempt to map these executive functions through fractionation, which allows us to consider unique contributions of each functional-structural unit, which ideally fosters a better understanding of the system as a whole.