Damage to the Fronto-Polar Cortex Is Associated with Impaired Multitasking

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 3; no. 9; p. e3227
• Main Authors: Dreher, Jean-Claude, Koechlin, Etienne, Tierney, Michael, Grafman, Jordan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 16.09.2008; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Age; Aged; Behavior disorders; Brain; Brain - anatomy & histology; Brain - pathology; Brain architecture; Brain Injuries - physiopathology; Brain Mapping; Brodmann's area; Case-Control Studies; Cerebral Cortex; Cognition; Cognition & reasoning; Cognition Disorders - physiopathology; Cognitive ability; Cognitive science; Cognitive Sciences; Conventions; Drug abuse; Female; Functional morphology; Human performance; Humans; Hypotheses; Life Sciences; Male; Medical imaging; Memory; Mental Health/Cognitive Neurology; Middle Aged; Multitasking; Neuroimaging; Neurological Disorders; Neurology; Neurons and Cognition; Neuropsychological Tests; Neuroscience; Neuroscience/Cognitive Neuroscience; Neuroscience/Psychology; Neurosciences; Patients; Prefrontal cortex; Stroke; Studies; Tomography; Traumatic brain injury; Trends; France; United States > US; Maryland
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003227

A major question in understanding the functional organization of the brain is to delineate the functional divisions of the prefrontal cortex. Of particular importance to the cognitive capacities that are uniquely human is the fronto-polar cortex (Brodmann's area 10), which is disproportionally larger in humans relative to the rest of the brain than it is in the ape's brain. The specific function of this brain region remains poorly understood, but recent neuroimaging studies have proposed that it may hold goals in mind while exploring and processing secondary goals. Here we show that the extent of damage to the fronto-polar cortex predicts impairment in the management of multiple goals. This result reveals that the integrity of the fronto-polar cortex is necessary to perform tasks that require subjects to maintain a primary goal in mind while processing secondary goals, an ability which is crucial for complex human cognitive abilities. These results provide important new insights concerning the cerebral basis of complex human cognition such as planning and multitasking.