prefrontal cortex. How to train your brain to get smarter. Development of the prefrontal cortex. Negative manifestations with a decrease in the functionality of the prefrontal cortex

Amy Arnsten, Caroline Mazure and Rajita Sinha
Journal "In the world of science" №7 2012

The entrance exam for medical school is a five-hour bombardment of hundreds of questions that often cause confusion and anxiety for even the most prepared applicants. For some would-be doctors, this unrelenting tension leads to a lethargy in which they think extremely slowly or completely lose the ability to think. Everyone knows this condition, which has a lot of different names: stupor, jitters, shaking, unconsciousness - and a dozen other similar "terms" that describe the well-known feeling to many when a person loses the ability to speak, write and think coherently during a long exam.

For decades, scientists thought they were imagining the processes that take place in the human brain during testing or interrogation. However, recent research has opened an entirely new chapter in the study of the physiology of stress. The response to stress is not only the primary response that is characteristic of many animal species from the salamander to humans and causes disturbances in the functioning of certain parts of the brain. Stress can also affect the cognitive functions of our brain, negatively affecting the activity of those areas that have reached the highest development in primates.

Old textbooks say that the hypothalamus (an evolutionarily ancient structure at the base of the brain) responds to stress by sending signals to the pituitary and adrenal glands, which release a wave of hormones into the bloodstream. Under their influence, the pulse quickens, blood pressure rises, appetite disappears. However, recent research has revealed a surprising fact: the prefrontal cortex is also involved in the stress response - the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe brain located directly behind the frontal bone and serving as the control center for our higher cognitive abilities, which include concentration, planning, decision making, understanding the situation. , the formation of judgments and the ability to restore past events in memory. The prefrontal cortex is the most evolutionarily young area of ​​the brain, and it is especially sensitive to even the fleeting anxieties and fears that we face on a daily basis.

When all goes well, this structure acts as a facilitator, keeping our core emotions and impulses in check. But severe and uncontrolled stress, as new research has shown, leads to the launch of a cascade of biochemical reactions that weaken the influence of the prefrontal cortex, as a result of which more evolutionarily ancient areas of the brain begin to control behavior. In fact, under stress, power over our thoughts and emotions shifts from the prefrontal region - a higher level structure - to the hypothalamus and even more archaic areas of the brain. As these ancient areas of the brain take over, we become overwhelmed by paralyzing fear or impulses that are usually suppressed by consciousness: an immoderate desire to eat, use intoxicants, or have a binge right in the convenience store near the house. Simply put, we lose control over ourselves.

Now there is more and more evidence that severe stress can significantly disrupt the work of higher "guiding" structures in the human brain. And now researchers are not just trying to understand what happens in a person’s head when he is stupor, but also seek to develop medications and certain behavioral techniques that allow you to maintain composure in any circumstances.

Shake for the brain

The question of why we sometimes lose control of ourselves has puzzled researchers for decades. After World War II, scientists tried to analyze why well-trained peacetime pilots made blunders and fatal mistakes in the heat of air combat. Similar studies were carried out later. However, what actually happens inside the human cranium remained a mystery until, relatively recently, activity in the prefrontal region showed how vulnerable the “highest controlling organ” is. The prefrontal cortex is so sensitive to stress because of its specific status in the hierarchy of brain structures. This is the most evolutionarily young part of the cortex, in humans it is developed to a much greater extent than in monkeys, and makes up almost a third of the cortex. It matures later than any other area of ​​the brain and is not fully formed until the end of adolescence. The neurons in the prefrontal region form a network responsible for abstract thinking and the ability to concentrate, as well as storing information in our mental "notebook" - short-term memory. This zone works as a temporary storage of information, allowing us, for example, to keep in memory the sum of numbers that need to be transferred to the next column when adding up in a column. It also provides conscious control and suppresses actions that do not correspond to thoughts.

The work of the neural control center is carried out with the help of an extensive internal network of connections between special triangular-shaped neurons called pyramidal cells. They also provide connections to the deeper parts of the brain that control our emotions, desires, and habits. When we are in a normal, non-stressful state, these circuits work in parallel without interfering with each other. Our short-term memory reminds us that a certain task needs to be done by next week, and another network of neurons sends a signal to deeper parts of the brain, alerting us that the next glass of wine might be better to abstain. In the meantime, the signal sent to the amygdala (a structure deep in the brain responsible for the fear response) gives us confidence that that huge giant approaching down the sidewalk is not going to attack us at all.

Keeping this system in a state of constant exchange of impulses is a delicate process that is easy to disrupt, so when stress hits the brain, even small changes in the neurochemical environment caused by it can instantly weaken the connections within the network. In response to stress, brainstem neurons begin to release streams of biologically active substances, such as norepinephrine and dopamine, flooding the brain with them. An increase in the concentrations of signaling substances in the prefrontal cortex blocks the generation of impulses by its neurons, also because the synapses temporarily fail, i.e. points of contact between neurons. Network activity is reduced, as is the ability to consciously control behavior. These effects are only exacerbated when the small glands located near the kidneys, the adrenal glands, at the command of the hypothalamus, begin to secrete the stress hormone cortisol into the bloodstream, sending it to the brain. In such circumstances, self-control becomes an extremely difficult task.

The expression "keep calm" describes the underlying biochemical process quite accurately. The neural structures of the prefrontal cortex (regardless of the ability to concentrate short-term memory on current activities) can, despite the action of an avalanche of neurotransmitters synthesized in the deep zones of the brain, restrain the emergence of a wave of uncontrolled emotions - a panic attack.

Our study of how easily the prefrontal cortex can be disrupted began about 20 years ago. Animal experiments conducted by Arnsten and Patricia Goldman-Rakic ​​of Yale University were one of the first studies to illustrate how stress-induced neurochemical changes can quickly block some of the functions of the prefrontal cortex.

Scientists have found that after a wave of neurotransmitters and stress hormones hits the neurons of the prefrontal cortex, the connections between them are weakened, and the generation of nerve impulses stops. At the same time, zones located in the depths of the brain, on the contrary, begin to influence our behavior more and more. Dopamine reaches a series of structures called the basal ganglia, which are located deeper in the brain and control strong desires and normal emotional and motor responses.

The basal ganglia guide our behavior not only when we ride a bike and maintain balance, but also when we indulge in bad habits, for example, making us yearn for forbidden ice cream. In 2001, Benno Rosendaal of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, James McGough of the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues discovered similar processes in the amygdala, another evolutionarily ancient structure. In the presence of norepinephrine or cortisol, the amygdala puts much of the nervous system into a state of readiness for danger, and also enhances memories associated with fear and other emotions.

Experiments have shown that some individuals, due to their genetic characteristics or under the influence of previous experience, are more vulnerable to stress than others. Normally, after dopamine and norepinephrine turn off the neural circuits that provide the higher functions of the prefrontal cortex, enzymes begin to decompose the molecules of these substances, so that this state does not persist for a long time, and after the cessation of the stressful effect, our brain quickly returns to normal work. However, some forms of genes are able to code for less efficient variants of enzymes, which may make carriers of these alleles more vulnerable to stress and, in some cases, to certain mental illnesses. Similarly, susceptibility can be enhanced by certain environmental factors, such as lead poisoning, which partially reproduces the stress response and affects cognitive function.

Currently, a number of scientists are investigating the processes that are triggered if an attack in the prefrontal cortex lasts for several days or weeks. Chronic stress expands the intricate network of connections between neurons in our deepest centers of emotion, while areas that provide the ability to reason - from comprehending the philosophy of Immanuel Kant to banal arithmetic calculations - gradually turn off. Under such conditions, the dendrites (branched processes of neurons that receive signals) in the archaic amygdala increase in size, while the dendrites of neurons in the prefrontal cortex, on the contrary, decrease. John Morrison of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and colleagues have shown that the dendrites of the prefrontal cortex are able to regenerate after stress has ceased, but this ability may disappear if the stress was especially strong. One of our team members (Rajita Sinha) found evidence for this process in humans as well, finding that gray matter shrinkage in the prefrontal cortex was associated with prior severe and prolonged stress. This chain of molecular transformations makes us more susceptible to subsequent stress and is likely to contribute to the development of drug and alcohol addiction, depression and anxiety, including post-traumatic stress disorder. As it turned out, a person's gender also affects the response to stress. In women, the hormone estrogen can increase sensitivity. For example, as one of us (Caroline Mazure) and other researchers have shown, daily stress in women contributes more to depression than to men and reduces resistance to addictions such as smoking. In men, stress can have a stronger influence on the manifestation of passions and stereotypical behavior, which are determined by the work of the basal ganglia.

Much of the research on the effects of stress on the functioning of self-control areas of the prefrontal cortex has yet to be done. Some scientists are now trying to establish how other neurotransmitters affect the work of the prefrontal cortex. Trevor W. Robbins and Angela Roberts of the University of Cambridge are leading a team to investigate whether serotonin, which plays a key role in depression, can influence stress and anxiety through its action in the prefrontal cortex. Such research is not an easy task, since modern ethical standards for conducting experiments with people require that the latter do not fall into situations of extreme psychological stress and, in addition to being able to interrupt the experiment at any time, simply by saying “Stop!”, could control the situation of the experiment. Thus, the environment of experience completely ceases to resemble real life with all its stresses. However, several laboratories have been successful in simulating the effects of uncontrolled stress in subjects by showing them clips of horror films or by inducing appropriate responses by asking them to briefly describe their own stressful experiences.

The last question, which still baffles experts, is why the brain has such built-in mechanisms that weaken its higher cognitive functions. We still don't know for sure, but perhaps switching to the level of ancient primitive reactions turns out to be saving in a situation where wild predators can hide in the bushes around a person. If you suddenly see a tiger flashing in the forest, it will be much more effective to lie low so that he does not notice you, rather than remember the poems of William Blake.

By turning off the higher-order neural networks that provide the ability to think, but work more slowly, primitive neural pathways give us the ability to instantly stop or immediately take off and flee. Such mechanisms can perform a similar function in the case of our encounter with the dangers of the modern world - say, when we are "cut off" by a reckless driver and we need to sharply press the brake pedal to the floor. However, if we remain in this state for a long time, the functions of the prefrontal cortex will be weakened, and such interference will be devastating in circumstances where we must make a deliberate decision in the event of a sudden deterioration in the health of someone close to us or in the process of organizing a serious event.

Keep calm

It is quite logical that as the cause of mental stupor is clarified, the development of methods to combat it is moving forward. Scientists hope that new insights into the biochemistry of the process that shifts the brain from a state of progressive rumination to a state of dependence on archaic reflexes may lead to effective treatments for stress-related disorders. Some of the recent discoveries only confirmed what was already known. For example, the development of automatic responses in soldiers and emergency workers necessary for survival is associated with the work of the basal ganglia and other ancient brain structures found in animals. And new animal studies have shown that a sense of psychological control (which becomes second nature to a soldier or emergency doctor) is a critical factor in the ability to withstand stressful circumstances. By analogy, for those who feel confident in front of an audience, public speaking only invigorates; to others they bring nothing but horror and "tetanus of thought."

The methods of training sergeants in the US Army were first tested in animal studies. Experiments have shown that young individuals grow up more resistant to stress if in ontogeny they have experienced repeated successful resistance to mild stress. Similar data have been obtained in human studies. It has now been proven that successfully resolving a difficult situation can lead to increased resilience. On the contrary, if children in a stressful situation face insurmountable obstacles, then in adulthood they are more vulnerable to stress and prone to developing depression.

In laboratories, new methods of drug exposure are gradually being developed. Treatment with prazosin (a standard antihypertensive drug that partially blocks the action of norepinephrine) has been tested in military veterans and civilians with post-traumatic stress disorder with positive results. It also turned out that prazosin reduces alcohol dependence and the amount of alcohol consumption. The most recent research in this area, by Sherry McKee and colleagues at Yale University, has found that another common hypertension drug called guanfacine can reduce some of the stress-related responses and increase the functioning of neuronal complexes in the prefrontal cortex, helping people for example, refrain from smoking during stressful situations. What's more, many laboratories have shown that certain behavioral strategies, such as relaxation, deep breathing, and meditation, can reduce the stress response.

What about a sense of self-control? It will probably make people feel like they have control over the situation. So the next time you're taking a test or speaking in public and you're in a stupor, you might be saying to yourself, "It's just a defense mechanism against a tiger lurking in the bushes." Perhaps this will make you feel more confident, even if it does not tell you the correct answer to the exam question.

Translation: T.A. Mitin

Also read on this topic:

8. You decide to go on a walking tour outside the city. Before the start of the route, the weather suddenly deteriorated, it could rain, from which there would be nowhere to hide. Anyone who has changed his mind to go, return the money for the ticket. Will you be among those who, despite the bad weather, will go on an excursion?

9. You are prescribed ten sessions of an unpleasant medical procedure. Will you complete the entire course?

10. You have received a letter that does not require an immediate response. Will you answer it right away?

11. If you have to borrow money, will you pay it back on time?

12. Your favorite show is on TV, and you urgently need to do some important work. Will you make it without being interrupted by the TV?

13. You decide to do gymnastics every day. Will you be able not to indulge yourself either on weekends or on holidays and not give up on your plans, citing lack of time or some other circumstances?

14. Will you keep your promise to someone, even if it is difficult to keep?

Give yourself 2 points for each “yes” answer, 1 point for each “maybe” answer, and 0 points for each “no” answer. Calculate the total number of points you have scored.

If you scored from 0 to 14 points - your willpower is poorly developed.

If you scored from 15 to 21 points, your willpower is moderately developed.

If you scored from 22 to 28 points - you have a well-developed willpower.

Do you think this assessment is true? Have you answered all questions honestly? Have you tried, even if unconsciously, to embellish your behavior?

But no matter how many points you score, you have the potential for development!

You can be proud of yourself if it turned out that you have a strong will, but still, you probably have weaknesses that you know about. In addition, even a strong will can become even stronger and bring you even more joy and pleasure from life.

Well, if the test results are not so rosy - do not rush to despair, better tell yourself that it is today that a new life begins for you, in which you will treat yourself, circumstances, life tasks, and your own in a different way. goals, and desires, and difficulties that arise along the way. You are starting the road to a new you - a strong-willed, strong person who does not stray from the chosen path and always achieves his goal.

Now let's talk about the nature of willpower and how and why it can be trained.

Willpower is one of the functions of our brain. The brain is trainable. Moreover, the brain readily responds to the new tasks that we set before it. Willpower, as a property of the brain, is no exception. After all, by training willpower, we thereby train the brain, or rather, develop it. frontal lobes.

Scientists have long found out that it is the frontal lobes of the brain that are responsible for the processes associated with self-regulation and self-control. And the will, as we have already found out, is directly related to self-control. And if in animals the frontal lobes are responsible only for controlling the movements and positions of the body, then in humans their functions are much richer - it is with the help of the frontal lobes that we regulate our behavior, our thoughts, feelings and emotions. Moreover, it is thanks to the frontal lobes that we realize who we are. The frontal lobes are responsible for our sense of our own identity, they allow us to realize our individuality, to answer the question "Who am I?".

Animals do not ask themselves such questions. Animals do not plan their actions and do not control their behavior with the help of the mind. Only man is capable of this. That is why in humans, compared to animals, the frontal lobes are more developed and much more complex. Imagine: in most predatory animals they are barely marked, in primates they are more developed, and in humans they occupy almost a third of the total volume of the cerebral hemispheres! We received such a gift in the process of evolution - the frontal lobes developed precisely due to the fact that a person had a need for such a quality as willpower.

But of particular importance for our willpower is the cortex of the frontal lobes, or, as it is also called, prefrontal cortex. This is the front part of the brain, which is located in the forehead - more precisely, right behind the frontal bone. Some researchers call it the "command post" and even the "top manager" of our brain. And it is no coincidence - this is the most highly developed part of the brain, which, in fact, makes us a reasonable person.

Here are the main qualities that the prefrontal cortex is responsible for:

The ability to plan your actions

Ability to control your impulses

The ability to forbid oneself to do something bad or harmful,

Organization and self-discipline

Persistence and purposefulness

Ability to recognize and correct mistakes

The ability to be aware of one's words and actions

The ability to manage your emotions

The ability to make decisions.

It is with the help of the prefrontal cortex that we can distinguish the important from the secondary, harmful from useful - in fact, to understand “what is good and what is bad”, and based on the conclusions made, make decisions and carry out certain actions.

Interestingly, the prefrontal cortex always gives us precise signals about what is right for us and what is not. Have you noticed that eating an extra piece of cake despite your diet, or skipping exercise, or putting off an important task until tomorrow, you feel a kind of remorse? Well, or at least you understand that you are behaving incorrectly. This is how the prefrontal cortex works. She is trying with all her might to direct us to the “true path” and protect us from erroneous actions and decisions. And we always hear her signals. Another thing is that we do not always follow them!

This happens when the influence of the prefrontal cortex weakens. This often happens under the influence stress to which this region of the brain is very sensitive. We are capable of self-control, curbing momentary passions and emotional impulses, making decisions and intelligently planning actions due to the fact that the neurons (nerve cells) of the prefrontal cortex communicate with each other and form neural networks. Signals are transmitted through the neural network, which determine our mind-controlled behavior. But in the event of stress, the body releases many biochemical substances that disrupt, or even completely block, the transmission of signals between neurons. The activity of the prefrontal cortex weakens. And since “a holy place is never empty”, then other, more ancient parts of our brain immediately come to the fore - the very ones that form instincts, fears, uncontrollable emotions and impulses.

This is why, when under stress, we sometimes become afraid of what we should not be afraid of, make mistakes in the simplest things, and commit unreasonable actions. This is why stress can make us lazy and weak-willed.

Let's list what other problems await us due to a decrease in the activity of the prefrontal cortex:

Distractedness, inability to concentrate;

The tendency to do things that we later regret;

Disorganization;

Exposure to unreasonable fears;

Inadequacy in the expression of emotions (when complete insensitivity is replaced by uncontrolled outbursts for no apparent reason);

The tendency to make the same mistakes - to step on the same rake because of the inability to draw conclusions and learn from experience;

Inability to correctly assess the situation;

conflict;

Depression, depression, negative mood.

Many people are wary of the word meditation, and understandably so. Today, this definition is entrenched in a lot of stereotypes, ranging from an urgent meeting with God and ending with a mandatory retreat into a cave. Practicing Hatha yoga, which a priori involves moving towards mastering this procedure, I still refused to look in her direction for a very long time. I want to talk about what exactly tempted me to start trying to meditate.

Without a doubt, there are an endless number of wonderful results of the practice of meditation. However, with your permission, as usual, I will turn to our inimitable body and its part that I love so much - the brain. But first, let's digress and talk about airplanes. The pilot of the aircraft lifts it into the air himself and puts it down himself, that is, with the help of certain physical manipulations and intellectual efforts - in professional language this is called "on hand". Having gained the desired height, he can turn on the autopilot - set the route and take a break for a while.

So in our brain with you there is an amazing part - the amygdala, which is also called the instinctive brain. This part is analogous to the autopilot in an airplane. And there is also a wonderful prefrontal cortex - this is the very “on hand” mode in which we act consciously - with the help of intellectual efforts.

The catch is that our amygdala is better developed than the prefrontal cortex. This means that most of the time we live on autopilot. In turn, when it comes to turning on the mechanical mode, and we find ourselves in a situation where we need to make a deliberate, conscious decision - we often find ourselves at a loss. All this is similar to how an airplane would be controlled with a stupid pilot at the helm: while the car is moving on the machine - at the very least, but it happens, when it comes to mechanical maneuvers - hysteria or stupor occurs in the cockpit.

So the practice of meditation is, it turns out, such an incomparable thing that allows you to train and develop this very prefrontal cortex. With concentration, we think more thoughtfully and carefully, and in doing so, we learn to make informed decisions and see options for their consequences ahead. Whereas decision making on autopilot is impulsive, leading to results that we perceive as unexpected. It is ignorance of the ability to develop the prefrontal cortex and excessive trust in the amygdala that makes us act the same way year after year in the same situations, sincerely waiting for a new development of events.

The advantage of developing the prefrontal cortex is that using it gives us many more choices. No matter how good the autopilot is, it is just a program. This means that it contains certain algorithms of actions in those situations that were provided by the developer and nothing more. It is the same with our amygdala: if we use only it, then we have only two reactions - attack or flee. Roughly speaking, if you are called on the carpet to the authorities, where they speak not too fairly and flatteringly about your work, and you have the autopilot turned on, then you will choose from only two options: punch your boss or urgently write a letter of resignation. Sometimes they are intertwined: run away so as not to hit or hit, and then run away.

Let's imagine that a high-class pilot was at the helm of the plane. No matter how professional he is, this does not negate the living person in him, so from time to time he will have to turn on the autopilot mode to take a break. This is absolutely natural and the desire of the pilot to mechanically control the machine, for example, for twenty hours, is akin to suicide. But in order to calmly relax while the plane is moving on its own, it needs to be sure that it is programmed to fly and not crash.

Buckle up because I'm going to talk about psychotherapy. I will be working with the prefrontal cortex, so be careful and careful, so don't be scared. I really like the new trend in yoga circles: more and more experienced practitioners are recommending the passage of personal therapy as an auxiliary tool. But believe me, it is very difficult for them to do this, because behind this word there are more stereotypes than behind meditation. Since I myself am familiar with this lifesaver firsthand, I will try to seduce you with this as well.

Imagine that I am at the controls of the aforementioned aircraft. And my professional experience is that as a result of the regular inclusion of the autopilot, I often crashed. And although I almost destroyed the car, however, I miraculously survived. I am aware that I cannot always control an airplane mechanically, but what can I do? And then one fine day, a hunch dawns on me: it seems that some algorithms in the autopilot program lead to crashes. But how do I know what exactly is wrong with them? After all, I'm a pilot, I'm not a developer.

Obviously, in this situation, I will have to take the black box and take it to the aircraft designer. The cortex of our amazing brain is a huge library, which, depending on the site, stores the memory of everything that we have ever done, felt, thought, smelled, touched, etc. What is absolutely incomparable in her is that she does not care at all whether it was conscious or automatic. It is the study of exactly at what moments my plane crashed that will allow me to find out which algorithms in autopilot mode are aimed at self-destruction and change them.

Thus, meditation and psychotherapy can turn out to be parts of one big, but very important process - the development of our brain. The better we know him, the more exciting we live. And although we hear a lot about the fact that this body is just an obstacle in self-knowledge and self-expansion - believe me, it can become both an ally and a friend to us, you just need to show a little interest and respect.

And again about the parts of the brain and their functions. Now we will talk about the famous prefrontal cortex, which I remember literally through the word. This part of the brain is located in the very front of the hemispheres, right next to the frontal bone. This, in fact, is the frontal lobe of the brain. Those. if you knock on your forehead as a hint to the interlocutor that something is wrong with his head, then the frontal lobe is just located there. And your gesture is very symbolic. Like knock there, something prefrontal cortex dozed off.

Why is it important that the prefrontal cortex stay awake?

But because it performs a lot of useful functions that allow you not to do stupid things.

In general, she is responsible for:

1. Attention.
2. Judgment.
3. Controls impulsive behavior (without thinking about their nature and consequences).
4. Organization of behavior and building plans.
5. Self-observation.
6. Step by step problem solving.
7. Critical Thinking (Am I doing well)
8. Planning and foreseeing the future (shares this function with the cingulate gyrus).
9. Benefiting from experience, i.e. the ability to use their past experience in the present.
10. Awareness of emotions and deciding how to express these emotions (whether to jump and shout “cheers” or just smile;
whether to make a stone face if you were offended, or to give in the eye). In fact, everything that comes from the limbic is filtered by the frontal cortex and it decides what to do with the information from there. If initially the entire impulse from the limbic can completely embrace a person (i.e., he will also show rage or joy to the fullest), then the frontal cortex significantly reduces the degree of heat, and adapts the emotional response to the environment, making it socially acceptable.
11. It is this part of the brain that is responsible for the manifestation of empathy, it is there that the famous mirror neurons are located, which I partially talked about.

The prefrontal cortex seems to be such a monster of human consciousness and the queen of the entire brain. Whoever I want, I suppress. But in fact, it is rather weak for other more ancient formations. For example, for limbic. She can regulate the emotions coming out of there to some extent, but, in the end, she gives up. This is about the suppression of emotions that I wrote about. This is due to quite understandable reasons. The desire to eat, drink, and reproduce comes from deeper parts of the brain. They simply command the bark: “Come on, my dear friend, organize a snack for us. We're already hungry and we need a food plan." These are very important needs that do not need to be discussed. Of course, later, when a person realizes that he wants to eat or wants sex, he begins to sort out options for satisfying this need in the frontal cortex. Chooses more acceptable and accepted in society. For example, he immediately refuses the option “grab your teeth into a stick of sausage in a supermarket.”

If the calls from the ancient parts of the brain are very strong, it may not come to thinking about behavior. In people with addictions, such as drug addicts, the Core really wants another pleasure, and the frontal cortex can only develop plans for the implementation of addiction. Here, even the cortex neglects such things as morality, social acceptability, and predicting the future.

But that's not all. If the prefrontal cortex is weak, then people can have a range of problems:

1. Distracted attention.
2. Weak control over impulses (I wanted to and immediately did it thoughtlessly)
3. Hyperactive behavior.
4. Poor understanding and management of one's own time.
5. Disorganization of activity.
6. Procrastination.
7. Wrong judgment and understanding of what is happening around, wrong interpretation of events and emotions of others and building behavior based on this erroneous information. The very wrong patterns of behavior and scenarios from childhood are stored there. In fact, these are persistent paths-connections of neurons that come into motion when stimuli are presented.
8. Poor learning experience. Man does not learn from his mistakes.
9. Problems with short-term memory.
10. Social anxiety (fear of not understanding what is happening and doing something stupid)

One of the options for weakness of the frontal cortex is ADHD, but in principle, the frontal cortex can weaken in other cases, already in adulthood as a result of stress and negative experiences.

Here are some tips for those who have found some problems with their prefrontal cortex:

1. Always make a plan of what to do. Not only at work and in life, but also at home, in the family and in various other cases.

2. Decide on life priorities and also make a plan. Sometimes people with a weakness in this department simply rush through life because they cannot determine what is important and how to get it.

3. Decide what events in life meant what and what will mean in the future.

4. Avoid resolving conflicts spontaneously. When limbic pumps emotions into your consciousness, there is a big risk that you will act impulsively or use some kind of childish preparation. And it may already be unacceptable for the situation. If you feel that you are overwhelmed with emotions, put the situation on the shelf. Not so far. When the limbic is no longer succumbing to heat, you can calmly sit down and think about everything.

5. People with frontal cortex weakness find it difficult to learn new things. There is no normal access to experience, and they make a lot of mistakes, do not use what they have already mastered. Use a variety of effective learning methods. It could theoretically take more time to write a summary, but you won't get lost in an abundance of introductory words and secondary images.

6. And soothe the limbic. How exactly again in a post about limbic

Any act or action of a person is preceded by mental activity, in which there is a choice of one single decision from a variety of options.

The prefrontal cortex (PC) is responsible for this process in the brain, which, based on the accumulated life experience, determines the reaction to a particular situation.

It is this area that is the basis for building a personality, therefore its development and preservation in a normal state is important for every person.

General information

The prefrontal cortex is one of the parts of the frontal lobes, with the help of which any action performed by a person is controlled, controlled and focused. In addition, this area allows the individual to effectively allocate his time, and also affects the social behavioral line in society.

PC includes 6 (9, 10, 11, 12, 46, 47) fields according to Broadmont. It is located directly behind the frontal bone and is the anterior third of the cerebral cortex.

Psychiatrist Thomas Goltieri characterized this zone as a tool that allows a person to set a goal, develop a plan for its implementation and achieve it, even in the presence of obstacles, by making timely changes to the developed line of behavior. He believed that it was the presence of a well-developed and normally functioning PC that was the main factor in the effectiveness of a person.

PC structure

The structure is based on three areas of the frontal lobe - dorsolateral, medial and orbitofrontal.

Dorsolateral region controls the expression of emotions in a specific situation, due to the connection with the limbic system. In addition, this area of ​​​​the head cortex affects the attention of a person.

medial area is responsible for recording information in short-term memory and allows you to compare data received by the senses and stored in the brain. Also, this area of ​​the cortex allows you to transfer information from short-term memory to a permanent place of its storage.

Orbitofrontal region helps to use the accumulated experience in decision-making.

Functions

The PC is one of the most developed areas of the brain, which performs a large number of functions. The main ones are:

1. Concentration of attention, which allows a person to focus on isolating only the necessary information, ignoring extraneous sensations and thoughts. This is due to the ability to send impulses to the sensory and limbic areas of the brain, which reduce distracting signals. Concentration is very important when learning and having to work for a long time on the same project.
2. Persistence in fulfilling the set goals and objectives, which allows you to continue to strive for the intended result, despite the difficulties and force majeure circumstances.
3. Assessment of the current situation. This takes into account all the factors influencing the event, and not just a limited set. This feature of the PC allows a person to comprehensively consider problems, which greatly facilitates the search for their solutions.
4. Critical thinking, which allows you to develop the necessary set of actions to find reliable and verified information. In other words, it is the person's responsibility to make sure the data is correct before using it.
5. Planning allows you to develop specific measures and actions to achieve the intended goal. This function of the PC significantly reduces the number of uncertain factors and force majeure in the performance of the task.
6. Forecasting events, which allows planning to take into account even those factors and circumstances that may arise in the future.
7. Using the accumulated experience. Thanks to this function, a person will take into account the mistakes made in the past and in the event of similar situations, he will choose the option that will exclude the repetition of an unfavorable outcome.

When considering functions, special attention should be paid to managing human emotions. In the PC, the perception and translation of the processes occurring in a simpler limbic system into certain feelings and emotions (love, hate, joy, grief, desire, etc.) takes place.

The prefrontal cortex is also responsible for empathy, which allows you to determine the feelings and mood of another person by the emotions they express.

In addition, the PC constantly controls the limbic system for strong emotional outbursts and extinguishes them when they occupy a dominant role. This helps a person to react to events around him not impulsively, but only after careful analysis and selection of the best solution, which will take into account possible future consequences.

Symptoms of dysfunction

Violation in the work of this area is accompanied by the following symptoms:

1. Absent-mindedness, in which a person cannot concentrate on obtaining the necessary information. This happens due to the fact that incoming data is not stored in short-term memory due to overwriting by newly received data.
2. Inaccurate or incomplete assessment of the situation. In this case, the information is either distorted or incomplete, since multiple signals from the sensory area arrive at the same time, which overlap each other, due to the PC either perceives the strongest data, or they are all skipped.
3. Impulsiveness, in which a person does things without first thinking and analyzing their consequences.
4. Lack of critical thinking. This symptom is manifested by the fact that a person takes any information on faith and does not double-check it.
5. Performing any action without planning. In this case, a person goes to the intended goal with a lot of unexpected difficulties that could have been avoided.
6. Making the same mistakes when a decision is made without recourse to accumulated experience, but only on desires.
7. Complete or partial lack of emotionality, due to the fact that the prefrontal cortex is unable to process and display the received signals of the limbic system.
8. Hyperactivity, which manifests itself in the inability to concentrate on a particular matter and the violent expression of emotions.

With the manifestation of at least one of the above symptoms, a person needs to see a doctor for a brain examination. The work of the cortex is checked using the SPECT technique, which is based on a comparison of the activity of a given area of ​​the brain in a state of rest and stimulation. With pathologies in the stimulated mode, activity will either remain in place or decline.

One of the main causes of pathologies in the brain is a hemorrhage due to a head injury or a massive stroke and intoxication of the body with harmful substances (alcohol, poisons, toxins, etc.). It is also not uncommon for PC to be rejected due to genetic and viral diseases that affect the central nervous system (CNS). In addition, the performance of PC functions can be affected by prolonged stress and lack of sleep.

Do not forget the fact that the cortex ceases to perform its functions partially or completely with human aging. This is due to severe contraction of neurons in this area of ​​the brain.

Problem Prevention

There are a number of measures that allow not only to prevent violations of the prefrontal cortex, but also to activate its performance. For this, specialized drugs are used that activate the work of the central nervous system and the brain (glycine, undevit, aminalon, bilobil, Brain Rush, etc.).

In addition, the good condition of the body as a whole has a positive effect on the work of this zone. To maintain it, it is necessary to: limit or completely abandon the intake of alcoholic beverages, follow a fruit and vegetable diet, and also exercise daily. It is also recommended to use meditation practices that help to relax the central nervous system and help activate the work of the prefrontal cortex.

If the cause of problems is stress, age or sleep, then a visit to psychologists may be prescribed for the purpose of undergoing specialized trainings that are aimed at developing the functions performed by the prefrontal cortex.

An example is exercises that help you plan your day correctly, set and fulfill life goals step by step, and control your behavior in stressful situations.