Executive Control and the Frontal Lobe: Current Issues

While the importance of the prefrontal cortex for "higher-order" cognitive functions is largely undisputed, no consensus has been reached regarding precise specifications of these functions. For example, although some degree of regional specialization within the frontal lobe seems inevitable, by and large, most attempts to map specific cognitive functions onto neuroanatomical and/or cytoarchitectonic subdivisions have been disappointing. Although a high degree of functional specialization probably exists within the frontal cortex, it seems increasingly likely that the structural organization of this system does not relate, in any straightforward way, to contemporary models of cognition.

Inhalt
Executive control and the frontal lobe: current issues.- Prefrontal cortical contributions to working memory: evidence from event-related fMRI studies.- Object working memory and visuospatial processing: functional neuroanatomy analyzed by event-related fMRI.- Segregation of working memory functions within the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.- The role of the lateral frontal cortex in mnemonic processing: the contribution of functional neuroimaging.- The role of the mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in working memory.- Functional connectivity of the anterior cingulate cortex within the human frontal lobe: a brain-mapping meta-analysis.- Executive frontal functions.- Control of action as mediated by the human frontal lobe.- One more cup of coffee for the road: object-action assemblies, response blocking and response capture after frontal lobe damage.- Massive impairment in executive functions with partial preservation of other cognitive functions: the case of a young patient with severe degeneration of the prefrontal cortex.- Specialisation within the prefrontal cortex: the ventral prefrontal cortex and associative learning.- Role of prefrontal cortex in a network for arbitrary visuomotor mapping.- Chemical neuromodulation of frontal-executive functions in humans and other animals.