Comments on: Frontal Lobes and Memory http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/2008/04/154/ Current ideas and research in psychology and neuroscience Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:06:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Pam http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/2008/04/154/comment-page-1/#comment-9301 Pam Mon, 11 Oct 2010 02:47:00 +0000 http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/?p=154#comment-9301 Interesting. I like the part where you say that we don't have any non necessary brain. I feel like printing this and taking it to my son's next appointment with his neurosurgeon. That way when he tells me that big ole arachnoid cyst that is displacing his left temporal lobe isn't causing his cognitive problems I can throw this at him. Well this and the neuropsychological exam that shows he has poor executive functioning, terrible working memory, and such a wide scatter score they can't give me an IQ....should be a fun visit. Almost as exciting as the visit where he explained that Arachnoid Cysts only caused headaches. Then I asked if space occupying lesions caused cognitive problems. He said yes. I asked if an A.C was a space occupying lesion? He said yes, then left the room. Good times.....good times..... Interesting. I like the part where you say that we don’t have any non necessary brain. I feel like printing this and taking it to my son’s next appointment with his neurosurgeon. That way when he tells me that big ole arachnoid cyst that is displacing his left temporal lobe isn’t causing his cognitive problems I can throw this at him. Well this and the neuropsychological exam that shows he has poor executive functioning, terrible working memory, and such a wide scatter score they can’t give me an IQ….should be a fun visit.
Almost as exciting as the visit where he explained that Arachnoid Cysts only caused headaches. Then I asked if space occupying lesions caused cognitive problems. He said yes. I asked if an A.C was a space occupying lesion? He said yes, then left the room.
Good times…..good times…..

]]> By: Mike http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/2008/04/154/comment-page-1/#comment-2332 Mike Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:38:23 +0000 http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/?p=154#comment-2332 Sorry for the long post. I do find memory an interesting topic. I think its an extremely complex subject and not all researchers can even agree on the exact mechanisms of memory consolidation. Sorry for the long post. I do find memory an interesting topic. I think its an extremely complex subject and not all researchers can even agree on the exact mechanisms of memory consolidation.

]]> By: Mike http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/2008/04/154/comment-page-1/#comment-2331 Mike Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:31:17 +0000 http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/?p=154#comment-2331 "but what role does the frontal lobe play in encoding new memories?" I'm not positive about that. This blogger though has quite a few good posts about memory. Here's one about the medial prefrontal cortex. http://mindblog.dericbownds.net/2007/06/new-steps-in-memory-consolidation.html I can speculate about a possible role of the PFC in memory consolidation. The prefrontal cortex is involved in generating interest in the world around you. Lesions of both the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal are associated with apathy or a lack of interest in your environment. The PFC serves to highlight salient things in the environment and make them interesting. Apathy is common in depression and negative schizophrenia and is associated with a lack of activity in the PFC. If you are apathetic, the days in the week may run together and all seem the same. So if your not interested in things in the environment, you are less likely to remember them. Conversely if you have a high amount of interest in the environment, your memory encoding is going to be that much greater. Taking a drug like amphetamine (adderall) increases PFC activity and can make studying more salient or interesting. So it can definitely improve a person's memory in that way. "The dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortex are critical for immediate memory processing. The possibility has been raised that those two areas may also contribute to long-term memory formation." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WNM-4NY4WKW-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=de709f14f2c12788087714951c4af88f From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory "The PFC has been found to be active in a variety of tasks that require executive functions[35]. This has led some researchers to argue that the role of PFC in working memory is in controlling attention, selecting strategies, and manipulating information in working memory, but not in maintenance of information." I think that when your prefrontal cortex isn't functioning properly your memory tends to be fragmentary and more difficult to piece together. So the prefrontal cortex serves to make sure your memories are placed in the correct context and time sequencing. This could be due to a poorer working memory that is associated with dorsolateral PFC deficits. Working memory is your ability to hold and manipulate information temporarily. Working memory can be measured by tests like the n-back. So a person with a good working memory might be able to store 3 or 4 items while a person with a poorer working memory might only be able to store 1. The fewer items you are able to store, the more disorganized your long term memory becomes. If you have a poorer working memory, then your long term memory encoding is also likely to be poor. “but what role does the frontal lobe play in encoding new memories?”

I’m not positive about that. This blogger though has quite a few good posts about memory. Here’s one about the medial prefrontal cortex.

http://mindblog.dericbownds.net/2007/06/new-steps-in-memory-consolidation.html

I can speculate about a possible role of the PFC in memory consolidation. The prefrontal cortex is involved in generating interest in the world around you. Lesions of both the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal are associated with apathy or a lack of interest in your environment. The PFC serves to highlight salient things in the environment and make them interesting. Apathy is common in depression and negative schizophrenia and is associated with a lack of activity in the PFC. If you are apathetic, the days in the week may run together and all seem the same. So if your not interested in things in the environment, you are less likely to remember them. Conversely if you have a high amount of interest in the environment, your memory encoding is going to be that much greater. Taking a drug like amphetamine (adderall) increases PFC activity and can make studying more salient or interesting. So it can definitely improve a person’s memory in that way.

“The dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortex are critical for immediate memory processing. The possibility has been raised that those two areas may also contribute to long-term memory formation.”

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WNM-4NY4WKW-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=de709f14f2c12788087714951c4af88f

From wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory

“The PFC has been found to be active in a variety of tasks that require executive functions[35]. This has led some researchers to argue that the role of PFC in working memory is in controlling attention, selecting strategies, and manipulating information in working memory, but not in maintenance of information.”

I think that when your prefrontal cortex isn’t functioning properly your memory tends to be fragmentary and more difficult to piece together. So the prefrontal cortex serves to make sure your memories are placed in the correct context and time sequencing. This could be due to a poorer working memory that is associated with dorsolateral PFC deficits. Working memory is your ability to hold and manipulate information temporarily. Working memory can be measured by tests like the n-back. So a person with a good working memory might be able to store 3 or 4 items while a person with a poorer working memory might only be able to store 1. The fewer items you are able to store, the more disorganized your long term memory becomes. If you have a poorer working memory, then your long term memory encoding is also likely to be poor.

]]> By: Dan http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/2008/04/154/comment-page-1/#comment-2325 Dan Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:03:13 +0000 http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/?p=154#comment-2325 We know that emotions from the limbic system have an effect on encoding new memories, but what role does the frontal lobe play in encoding new memories? We can see frontal lobe damage that can change the way we recall memories, so must there not also be a change in encoding process? We know that emotions from the limbic system have an effect on encoding new memories, but what role does the frontal lobe play in encoding new memories?
We can see frontal lobe damage that can change the way we recall memories, so must there not also be a change in encoding process?

]]> By: Mike http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/2008/04/154/comment-page-1/#comment-2319 Mike Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:55:04 +0000 http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/?p=154#comment-2319 The frontal lobes serve to make sure our memories are appropriate and socially acceptable. When the frontal lobe is damaged, you get a disorder like confabulation where memories are blown out of proportion and might sound absurd. Usually the confabulator is not lying. However, since their frontal lobes are damaged they are not able to censor or inhibit tangential and irrelavent memories, so things get expressed indiscriminantly. Also, you can get grandiosity with prefrontal cortex damage. People with narcissitic personality disorder often have memories which aggrandize their own life disproportionately to what they actually accomplished. So the frontal lobes serve to make sure that our memories are weighed correctly so we don't emphasize or minimize things too much in comparison with another person's memory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation The frontal lobes serve to make sure our memories are appropriate and socially acceptable. When the frontal lobe is damaged, you get a disorder like confabulation where memories are blown out of proportion and might sound absurd. Usually the confabulator is not lying. However, since their frontal lobes are damaged they are not able to censor or inhibit tangential and irrelavent memories, so things get expressed indiscriminantly. Also, you can get grandiosity with prefrontal cortex damage. People with narcissitic personality disorder often have memories which aggrandize their own life disproportionately to what they actually accomplished. So the frontal lobes serve to make sure that our memories are weighed correctly so we don’t emphasize or minimize things too much in comparison with another person’s memory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation

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