Handbook of Neuropsychology

Animal research has contributed greatly to our understanding of the special capability of the frontal lobes to respond to a variety of input from "lower order" sensory and posterior association cortex and this and other observations are reported in this volume. Findings that functions dependent on the frontal lobes emerge late in ontogeny and appear to decline early in normal aging are reviewed and their implications for neuropsychology are discussed. In this volume the concept of working memory is discussed in relationship to both functional neuroimaging and patient studies. Gross distinctions in the functioning of the prefrontal cortex have divided it topographically into dorsolateral and ventromedial sectors. Chapters highlighting the role of the dorsolateral and ventromedial sectors from both neuroimaging and lesion perspectives are also included. Computational modeling has taken center-stage in cognitive neuroscience and its usefulness in testing different theoretical stances about the role of the frontal lobes in information processing is presented.