The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

Full Text of this Article
in Japanese PDF (23K)

ArticleTitle	How does human react on the environment? Behavioral aspect
Language	J
AuthorList	Etsuro Mori, M.D., Ph.D.
Affiliation	Department of Neuropsychology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 20 (1), 39-43, 2004
Received
Accepted
Abstract	Human can suppress inborn behavioral traits, such as imitating and searching behaviors, which appear in infants and primates, and inertia and stereotype, which are often seen in adults. The capability to react flexibly and diversely to the environment, released from such inborn behavioral traits, would be the reason why human is elegant and intellectual. The frontal lobes are centrally involved in the inhibitory mechanism. Damage to the frontal lobes, impairing the inhibitory mechanism, may lead reappearance of the inborn behavioral traits. Imitation behavior or echopraxia seen in patients with frontal damage, which corresponds to an innate imitating behavior, and instinctive grasp response, compulsive manipulation of tools, and utilization behavior after frontal lesions, which are extensions of instinctive searching behaviors. Stimulus-driven, stereotyped, and repetitive behaviors, which are often efficient in the real life, are also likely to belong innate patterns of behavior. When the inhibitory mechanism is damaged, stimulus-driven and often repetitive behaviors, such as pathological inertia, environmental dependency syndrome, and stereotyped behaviors may emerge. A study on the inhibitory mechanism would be a key to understand the neural mechanism for human behavior.
Keywords	frontal lobe, stereotyped behavior, imitation behavior, pathological grasp, pathological inertia