The frontal lobe is located at the front of the brain, just behind the forehead. It plays a crucial role in higher cognitive functions, motor control, language production, emotional regulation, and decision-making. It’s key functions are voluntary movement, executive functions, impulse control and inhibition, attention and working memory, social behavior, and speech and language production.
The Premotor Cortex is located anterior to the primary motor cortex. Its functions consist of planning and organizing complex movements before they are executed, coordinating movements based on external information, and motor learning/sequence of actions.
The Primary Motor Cortex (PMC) is located at the precentral gurus, just in front of the central sulcus. Its functions consist of initiating voluntary movements by sending motor commands. The PMC is organized somatotopically: different body parts are controlled by specific regions. It also uses lateralization, meaning the left motor correct controls the right side of the body and vice versa.
The Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) is the most anterior part of the frontal lobe. It plays a key role in executive functions, social cognition, impulse control and emotional regulation, personality expression, and goal-directed behavior. Notable subregions are the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex, which focuses on working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning; the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex, which focuses on emotional regulation and value-based decision making; and the Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC), which focuses on evaluating rewards and punishments, as well as adaptive behavior.
The Broca’s Area is located in the left inferior frontal gyrus, and is heavily involved in generating grammatically correct speech, and the organization of language output. It also contributes to motor planning for speech. Damage to the Broca’s Area results in struggles with producing fluent speech, but language comprehension is typically unaffected (non-fluent aphasia).
Frontal Lobe
