Prefrontal cortex
The prefrontal cortex is a part of the brain located at the front of the frontal lobe. It is implicated in a variety of complex behaviors, including planning, and greatly contributes to personality development
Poor cerebral cortex functions leads to more impulsive behavior. ... Study subjects in whom the activity of the prefrontal cortex was temporarily suppressed could control their emotional impulses less well than normal. Their amygdala deep in the brain that is responsible for emotional reactions then becomes extra active.
The prefontal cortex (that section of the brain right behind your forehead) is the part that helps us with things like decision-making and regulating our behavior. Self-control, or willpower, falls under this heading, and thus is taken care of in this part of the brain.
FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION OF PFC
PFC is often classified as multimodal association cortex as extremely processed information from various sensory modalities is integrated here in a precise fashion to form the physiologic constructs of memory, perception and intricate action, and diverse cognitive processes are monitored here.[17]
Lateral prefrontal cortex
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and event-related potential (ERP) research have defined the spatial and temporal contributions of lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) including portions of inferior, middle, and superior frontal gyri in language, attention, memory,[18] response conflict, novelty processing which is crucial for new learning, creativity, and new learning.[19,20] This region is also responsible for the temporal ordering of events,[21] explicit memory,[22] and metamemory.[23] Simulation, i.e., process of generating internal modes of external reality, the absence of which can lead to stimulus-bound behavior thereby resulting in utilization behavior[24] and reality monitoring is too subserved by this region which is proposed as a major mechanism in self-awareness.[25] The caudal-most portion of the LPFC is important for attention and orientation. DLPFC activation which belongs to a neural circuit that includes posterior parietal cortex, head of the caudate nucleus, and the dorsomedial thalamic nucleus[7] has been associated with a diverse set of cognitive processes, including actively maintaining information in working memory,[26] changing behavior according to task demands[27] or representing past events, current goals, and future predictions[28] and organization and conceptualization of finances.[29] Increased memory-related activity in mid-ventrolateral PFC has been related to actively encoding and retrieving information,[30] updating and maintaining the contents of working memory.[31] Right DLPFC mediates negative attitudes and left ventrolateral PFC mediates positive attitude, spatial and conceptual reasoning process,[32] planning,[9] and integration of perception with action across time.[33]
Medial PFC
Specifically, the medial frontal region (anterior cingulate area) appears to be involved in bimanual coordination, attention to demanding cognitive tasks, modulation of body arousal, spatial memory, self-initiated movement, and conflict resolution (medial prefrontal and medial orbital regions).[29] The anterior cingulate cortex is also involved in the perception of pain and possibly in mediating the emotional response behind it. Reward and goal-related activity are thought to correspond to the unique patterns of connections that link the rostral cingulate motor cortex with the prefrontal and limbic cortices.[8] Ventromedial region plays a role in decision making[29] and the retrieval of information from long-term memory and metacognitive processes.[34]
Orbitofrontal cortex
OFC functions as a component of the paralimbic ring involved in autonomic, response inhibition, and stimulus significance functions,[35] mnemonic functions and delayed response.[36] It plays a role in reward expectations[37] and in the anticipation and processing of outcomes even if the outcome does not produce any reward.[38] This region has been shown to have a significant role in social and emotional behavior.[39] Anterior OFC is activated in case of aversive tastes[40] and pleasurable taste is mediated by caudomedial regions of PFC.[41] PFC interactions with the hypothalamus mediate reward aspects of eating like food cravings.[42] Ventral PFC emerging from OFC is connected with limbic system and is involved in emotional processing.[43] This region is intimately associated with amygdala and anterior cingulate, and is involved in behavioral self-regulation.[44]
THE SOMATIC MARKER HYPOTHESIS: A MODEL FOR SELF-REGULATION
Damasio[35] postulated that the OFC does not contain factual information pertinent to the current contingency, but provides “somatic markers” that enable the individual to “learn by experience.” Damasio postulated that portions of the ventromedial PFC provide a repository for the linkage of current contingencies with the individual's previous emotional experience of similar situations. This linkage of factual sets (held in the appropriate association cortices) and emotional sets (held in the ventromedial frontal cortex) is thought to modify the response of the individual to environmental stimuli and to facilitate logical reasoning. According to this hypothesis, individuals who fail to develop context appropriate somatic markers, either through a “sociopathic temperament” or through injury to the ventromedial frontal cortex will have inappropriate stimulus-bound behavior typical of sociopathy.
FUNCTIONS OF PFC
Executive functions
These functions as mediated by the PFC with its rich cortical and subcortical connections include ability to initiate and carry out new and goal-directed patterns of behavior, sustained attention,[3] motor attention, i.e., enactment of action schemas requires attention directed to events in the motor or executive sector[45] short-term memory tasks,[46] inhibitory control of interference, filtering or gating mechanism for information processing[21] working memory,[18] stimulus detection and sequencing tasks,[47] planning, set shifting, flexibility, delayed responding, and active problem solving.[48] Executive functions are closely linked to emotional regulation as well.
Memory
PFC plays a significant role in encoding and retrieval of memory. Neuroimaging studies found left frontal activation with memory encoding and right PFC activation with retrieval of episodic memory.[49] Studies on frontal lobe patients have yielded important insights on the role of PFC in recent memory,[3] source memory, i.e., memory involving contextual factors associated with learning, sequential memory, i.e., encoding and representation of temporal information.[50]
Intelligence
Intelligence being a complex construct, certain aspects of it are known to be mediated by PFC. Prominent among these are verbal expression, memory, abstraction, and the ability to formulate behavioral plans and to pursue them to their goal,[51] ability to perceive the spatial relationships between one's self and the environment, or to perform tasks that require the guidance of one's actions by visual information, spatial, or otherwise.[52]
Language
Neuroimaging, neuropsychologic, and neurophysiologic studies have reported consistently the role PFC in regulating spontaneous speech, narrative expression, and verbal fluency.