Higher-order thinking skills distinguish humans from all other creatures. These skills include the capacity for comprehension and utilization of spoken and written language, as well as the executive functions. The executive functions encompass the ability to plan, formulate, organize, contemplate, monitor and adjust thoughts and behaviors in accordance with short and long-range goals and internal values. While this is still an area of active research, certain higher-order functions have been correlated to specific parts of the brain.
Frontal Lobe--Executive Functions
Executive functions operate almost continuously as a person conducts daily tasks. Each day involves setting goals, planning, organizing, problem solving, prioritizing, multi-tasking, and adjusting or adapting behaviors. Executive functions require self-awareness and self-regulation--monitoring your own behavior and making choices to act in certain ways to meet internalized standards or goals. The paired frontal lobes of the brain are the seat of these functions.
Injuries to the frontal lobes due to trauma, stroke or tumor encroachment can lead to a wide variety of executive function disturbances. Step-by-step training helped young and middle aged patients regain lost skills for planning and strategizing, according to a review of work with traumatic brain injury patients with executive function impairments, by Mary Kennedy, Ph.D., and colleagues, published in Neuropsychological Rehabilitation.
Frontal Lobe--Working Memory
The frontal lobe conducts a critical function known as working memory that facilitates higher-order thought processes. In a review article published in Seminars in Speech and Language, Lisa Connor, Ph.D., and colleagues point out that working memory is a short-term workspace where recalled or new information is held during higher-order processes like planning, organization and strategizing.
The interplay between working memory and executive functions is demonstrated by mental activity that takes place in activities like packing for a camping trip. A person first must "call up" a mental list of what she needs, based on prior knowledge. She creates and stores the list in her working memory, where it is mentally held as other areas of the frontal lobe organize her movements to collect the needed items. In the garage, she gathers the tent, sleeping bags and water bottles. In the kitchen, she fills the water bottles and gathers the food. This process continues--an interplay between working memory and executive functions--until the packing is complete. At this point, the mental list is dismissed.
Broca's Area--Language Function
A region of the left frontal lobe known as Broca's area is the primary site where thoughts are translated into spoken words. Brain damage in Broca's area leads to a condition known as expressive aphasia in which a person thinks clearly and can mentally formulate what he wants to say, but cannot express his thoughts through speech, explains the University of Idaho College of Science. Broca's area also assists other language areas of the brain with functions, such as the interpretation of complex sentences and word retrieval.
References
- "Neuropsychological Rehabilitation"; Intervention for Executive Functions After Traumatic Brain Injury: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis and Clinical Recommendations; Mary R. T. Kennedy, Ph.D., et al.; June 2008
- "Seminars in Speech and Language"; Working Memory: A Foundation for Executive Abilities and Higher-Order Cognitive Skills; Lisa Tabor Connor, Ph.D., et al.; 2000
- University of Idaho College of Science: Broca's Aphasia
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: Brain Basics
- Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals: Function and Dysfunction of the Cerebral Lobes
