The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	The dysfunction of prefrontal lobes
Language	J
AuthorList	Motoichiro Kato
Affiliation	Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 27 (3), 196-204, 2011
Received
Accepted
Abstract	The prefrontal cortex (PFC) seems to play a central role in cognitive control and emotional regulation of behavior. The PFC syndrome could be divided into dorsolateral prefrontal syndrome, orbitofrontal syndrome, and medial prefrontal lobe/anterior cingulate syndrome. The deficit of cognitive control is a core dysfunction of dorsolateral PFC syndrome and the dysregulation of behavior by emotional signals is a main disorder of orbitofrontal syndrome. The deficit of processing cognitive and emotional conflict and avoliton may be related to medial PFC/anterior cingulate syndrome. Because the PFC receives converging information from many sensory systems including visual system and limbic regions, it is important to investigate the functional connection between PFC and other brain regions. As an example of such studies, we described interesting positron emission tomography (PET) findings on hippocampus (HPC)-PFC interactions. HPC dopamine D2 receptor binding showed positive linear correlations not only with memory function but also with prefrontal lobe functions. Furthermore, we found an inverted U-shaped relation between prefrontal dopamine D1 receptor binding and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in human. Our findings suggest that orchestration of PFC D1 receptors and HPC D2 receptors might be necessary for normal prefrontal functions in human.
Keywords	prefrontal lobes, frontal function, human behavior, hippocampus, dopamine system