Anatomy of frontal and prefrontal lobes and signs of their lesions

1. Big picture

The frontal lobe is the main lobe for voluntary motor control, eye movements, speech production, behavior, personality, executive function, motivation, inhibition, and bladder control.

For the exam, the most important idea is:

Frontal lobe lesions do not only cause weakness. They also cause “frontal behavior”: apathy, disinhibition, primitive reflexes, perseveration, echolalia, poor planning, and incontinence.

Clinically, frontal lobe lesions are common in stroke, tumors, trauma, dementia, multiple sclerosis, and epilepsy.