The frontal lobe is responsible for many different parts of a person’s mental and physical health. Thus, damage to this area of the brain can cause a lot of problems.
In order to better understand the effects of head injury and brain damage on the frontal lobe, it is crucial to understand its various purposes.
What is the frontal lobe?
Physiopedia discusses the frontal lobe as a control center. Numerous important parts of the brain reside in the frontal lobe, including the prefrontal cortex, the motor cortex, the frontal eye fields and more.
This area of the brain holds responsibility for numerous physical and mental aspects of a person’s life. For example, it controls smooth and voluntary movement of many muscles, including those in the body, eyes and mouth. Other parts of it control things like memory retention, impulse control, emotional and behavioral response, executive function and more.
What happens when it gets damaged?
When the frontal lobe gets damaged, most of the effects will reflect in those affected areas. For example, a victim with this sort of injury will often struggle to codify short-term memories into long-term ones. This can cause intense forgetfulness that can affect every aspect of their life and may even cost them their job.
Other people will seemingly grow more rash and impulsive, unable to rely on the same impulse control that guided their life and actions before. Their loved ones often report on their changed temperament.
These changes are difficult for the victim as well as their loved ones. It is why immediate treatment is important, in order to help everyone understand what is going on and start proper healing quickly.