PREFRONTAL CORTEX

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does prefrontal cortex mean? 

• PREFRONTAL CORTEX (noun)
  The noun PREFRONTAL CORTEX has 1 sense:

1. the anterior part of the frontal lobe

  Familiarity information: PREFRONTAL CORTEX used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PREFRONTAL CORTEX (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The anterior part of the frontal lobe

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

prefrontal cortex; prefrontal lobe

Hypernyms ("prefrontal cortex" is a kind of...):

lobe ((anatomy) a somewhat rounded subdivision of a bodily organ or part)

Holonyms ("prefrontal cortex" is a part of...):

cerebral cortex; cerebral mantle; cortex; pallium (the layer of unmyelinated neurons (the grey matter) forming the cortex of the cerebrum)

 Context examples 

The light-activated brain cells project into 2 areas of the medial prefrontal cortex―a brain region responsible for complex behaviors.

(Anxiety molecules affect male and female mice differently, NIH)

The second part, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), integrated this signal with a likeability evaluation to produce a distinct activity pattern that closely matched the Uncanny Valley response.

(Scientists identify possible source of the ‘Uncanny Valley’ in the brain, University of Cambridge)

The prefrontal cortex is the seat of higher order functions such as language, social behavior, mood, and attention, and which also helps regulate emotions, and more primitive areas of the brain.

(Researchers identify brain circuits that help people cope with stress, NIH)

Gut microbes seem to influence miRNAs in the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex.

(New Light on Link between Gut Bacteria, Anxiety, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The researchers found that hippocampal IEDs were followed by spindles in the prefrontal cortex.

(Seizures disrupt memory network, NIH)

Memory cells were labeled in three parts of the brain: the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex and the basolateral amygdala, which stores memories’ emotional associations.

(New Study Challenges Assumptions about How Memories Are Made, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The study conducted at the University of Vermont and Yale University found that obese children had a thinner prefrontal cortex than children of normal weight.

(Obesity Can Affect Kids’ Working Memory, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Cognitive flexibility is a major deficit in patients with OCD and is related to the the lateral prefrontal cortex.

(Deep brain stimulation may significantly improve OCD symptoms, University of Cambridge)

Increased activity in these areas occurred in concert with activity in the inferior frontal junction, an area of the prefrontal cortex that controls visual processing areas.

(How the brain pays attention to faces and places, NIH)

The researchers also found that the category selectivity of neural activity patterns in the prefrontal cortex was task-dependent.

(How does the brain learn categorization for sounds? The same way it does for images, National Science Foundation)