What do we mean by frontal, executive or attentional systems?
(back to the index) It has been known for a long time that damage to the frontal cortex of the brain can cause a range of problems for people. These have included in organizing behaviour towards achieving a goal (even if many basic abilities were intact), having insight into one’s own errors, distractibility and problems in inhibiting inappropriate actions. People have been reported to be sometimes able to work along habitual, routine lines but to run into problems when circumstances change and new problems are encountered. Sometimes people become very concrete and literal in their thinking, have difficulty initiating activity or sustaining their attention for very long. Others may make rash, hasty decisions, have difficulty empathizing with others and become indifferent to their relationships. It is rare that any particular person will show all of these characteristics and it should be said that sometimes damage to the frontal lobes seems to produce few if any problems. However, this
