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 Course description
  

Lesions of different frontal lobes regions often result in recognizable and distinct frontal lobe syndromes depending on the region affected.  This course will discuss clinical aspects from regionalized frontal lobe impairment of the lateral (dorsolateral), mesial, and orbital frontal areas.  Dorsolateral frontal syndrome (executive dysfunction syndrome) consists of difficulty generating hypotheses and flexibly maintaining or shifting sets and seen on various neuropsychological tests.  Motor programming difficulty may include poor alternating and reciprocal motor task performance, or poor performance on sequential motor tests.  Mesial frontal/anterior cingulate syndrome is characterized by reduced spontaneous activity that ranges from akinetic mutism to transient abulic hypokinesia.  Orbital frontal syndrome is characterized by prominent personality changes, which may include emotional lability, impulsivity, irritability, becoming more outspoken and less worried, and occasionally showing imitation and utilization behaviors (enslavement to environmental cues).  The series of lectures will discuss material derived from case studies, patient series, and when appropriate, experimental findings from healthy subjects to compare and contrast these distinct aspects of frontal lobe function.

Reading List

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Grossman M. Frontotemporal dementia: a review. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society 2002;8:566-583.

Levin, H., Eisenberg, H., Benton, A.  1991.  Frontal lobe function and dysfunction.  New York: Oxford University Press.

Lhermitte F, Pillon B, Serdaru M. Human autonomy and the frontal lobes. Part I: Imitation and utilization behavior: a neuropsychological study of 75 patients. Annals of Neurology 1986;19:326-334.

Lhermitte F. Human autonomy and the frontal lobes. Part II: Patient behavior in complex and social situations: the "environmental dependency syndrome". Annals of Neurology 1986;19:335-343.

Royall DR, Lauterbach EC, Cummings JL, et al. Executive control function: a review of its promise and challenges for clinical research. A report from the Committee on Research of the American Neuropsychiatric Association. Journal of  Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience  2002;14:377-405.

Stuss DT, Levine B. Adult clinical neuropsychology: lessons from studies of the frontal lobes. Annual Review of Psychology. 2002;53:401-433.