15 Aug TOPIC: Describe the development of the frontal lobes. Review

TOPIC: Describe the development of the frontal lobes. Review the executive functioning skills and tie them to frontal lobe development. How might the development of the frontal lobes explain poor judgment, erratic behaviors, and impulsive actions seen in adolescents?I’VE ALREADY COMPLETED THE INITIAL POST, PLESAE JUST COMPLETE THE TWO STUDENT RESPONSES TO THE TWO STUDENTS BELOW, MINIMUM OF 150 WORDS EACH!STUDENT ONE:The frontal lobe is the last part of the brain to fully develop. It usually has a developmental peak around nine to twelve years old (Tanaka, Matsui, Uematsu, Noguchi & Miyawaki, 2012), however the frontal lobe areas keep developing even after that until early adulthood. The frontal lobe is in charge of many important human functions to include cognitive skills, emotions, memory and language; all of which develop at various times in our lives. The continuous development of these functions and the ‘peak’ developmental times are extremely important for normal developments and to avoid disorders or deficits. If developmental deficits in frontal lobe areas are identified, early intervention is important so the brain can form different neuron connection routes and processes. Executive functioning skills are some of the most important in the frontal lobe and deficits to them can cause a person to have many lifelong struggles in their lives. Executive functions consist of memory, inhibition, impulsivity, attention abilities, etc. Being able to adequately control and use executive functions allows people to plan and execute plans, live by social rules, have problem solving abilities, complete tasks appropriately, use working memory to organize memories in time and place and have memory retrieval abilities (Grafman & Litvan, 1999) and much more. A decrease in executive functioning is common in many mental disabilities and cognitive deficits (Mace, Waters, Sawyer, Turrisi & Gansler, 2019) some of which include common deficits like ADHD or Alzheimer or more unique disabilities that come with aging. The frontal cortex consists of many areas including the ventromedial, medial, frontopolar and dorsolateral areas which all have a cognitive domain control related to executive functioning (Grafman & Litvan, 1999). Within these areas, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex controls executive functions such as planning, reasoning and solving problems while the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is in charge of other main executive functions such as social behaviors, emotional control and following rules (Grafman & Litvan, 1999). A developmental deficit in any of the areas of the frontal lobe that contributes to execute functioning would result in emotional, behavioral or educational disorders. One executive functioning deficit often impacts another, for example people with ADHD, a deficit in ability to focus and hold back impulses, often has difficulty with social and emotional stability as well because of the impact one executive functioning has on another. Children and adolescents are learning to control and use their executive functioning behaviors, deficits will cause a lack in some or many of these controls and result in functioning issues. ReferencesGrafman, J., & Litvan, I. (1999). Importance of deficits in executive functions. The Lancet, 9194.Mace, R. A., Waters, A. B., Sawyer, K. S., Turrisi, T., & Gansler, D. A. (2019). Components of executive function model regional prefrontal volumes. Neuropsychology, 33(7), 1007–1019. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1037/neu0000563.suppTanaka, C., Matsui, M., Uematsu, A., Noguchi, K., & Miyawaki, T. (2012). Developmental Trajectories of the Fronto-Temporal Lobes from Infancy to Early Adulthood in Healthy Individuals. DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROSCIENCE, 34(6), 477–487. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1159/000345152STUDENT TWO:The frontal lobes finish developing later than the rest of the brain. Throughout childhood and into adolescence, cortical thickening occurs with an increase in neural connections. Gray matter volumes in the frontal cortex peak for girls around age 11 whereas boys peak around age 12 (Johnson, Blum, & Giedd, 2010). Typically, loss of gray matter in correspondence with synaptic pruning progresses from the back to the front—the frontal lobes are the last to show these structural changes. Additionally, myelination, which prompts impulses to travel through the brain via neural connections that survive pruning and facilitates an increase in integrated brain activity, does not occur in the prefrontal cortex until the early-to-mid 20s. The amygdala, which is involved in emotion regelation, becomes denser in adolescence. The neural connections between the amygdala and frontal lobes integrate and result in emotional maturity so individuals can effectively regulate and interpret emotions (Johnson et al., 2010). Executive functions are coordinated in the prefrontal cortex. These supervisory cognitive skills are necessary in goal-driven behaviors such as attention, memory, planning, and response inhibition. Individuals with normally developed executive functioning are able to assess situations and carefully reflect on the best course of action before executing their plan. Poor executive functioning undermines an individual’s judgment and decision making. During adolescence and early adulthood, the prefrontal cortex undergoes great development which results in the cognitive and emotional maturation necessary for individuals to become self-sufficient adults. Before development is complete, adolescents express three behavior changes: increased novelty seeking; increased risk taking; and, a social affiliation toward peer-based interactions (Johnson et al., 2010). These behaviors, while often resulting in dangerous situations, are normal in all social animals because it marks the time in the life cycle where the individual begins the process of independent social skills. fMRI studies have connected these behaviors to impulse control and sensation seeking wherein maturation of the frontal lobe and striatal dopamine changes from puberty are related, respectively.ReferencesJohnson, S. B., Blum, R. W., & Giedd, J. N. (2009). Adolescent maturity and the brain: thepromise and pitfalls of neuroscience research in adolescent health policy. The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 45(3), 216–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.05.016