What Is the Frontal Lobe and Why is it SO Important?
The frontal lobe is the part of your brain right behind your forehead. It is critical for character development. This region of our brain is responsible for executive functions such as moral reasoning, critical and creative thinking, emotion regulation, flexibility, planning for the future, decision making, impulse control, empathy, and the will. Essentially the frontal lobe houses our very character. The frontal lobe develops slowly in children, amps up its growth during the teenage years but does not fully mature until around a person’s late 20s to 30s. The frontal lobe also plays a key role in cognitive behavioral therapy because it helps us to slow down our emotional and behavioral responses and evaluate our thoughts so that we can practice and learn to respond rather than REACT! The picture below points out a few other important parts of the brain and how they interact with the frontal lobe.
If you look at the bottom of the picture you can see the spinal cord. Where it says “stimulus”, that means an experience has just happened to you that then enters the brain to be processed into information. There is a fast path that sends information up to your thalamus, which processes sensory information and relays it to the appropriate parts of the brain. Another area on the fast path is the amygdala, which is part of the limbic system and is the emotion center of our brain. Very often, the amygdala can hijack our frontal lobe (the rational brain) because it is trying to help us “fight, fly or freeze”. A stimulus in our environment, whether it is a person, situation or event, can trigger us and very quickly we find ourselves on that fast path. Current brain research shows that our amygdala “fires” or ignites first due to cortisol (the stress hormone) and other chemical and hormonal releases. If we practice staying on this fast path, we may be reinforcing deep neural pathways of emotional turmoil and upsetting behavioral responses. The good news is we can train our brain to reinforce an alternative neural pathway up to the frontal lobe. It is the slower path, meaning it may take some time and lots of practice to engage this part of your brain but it is possible. Cognitive behavior therapy techniques and tools can help you to practice engage this more rational part of your brain which will then have an impact on your amygdala, calming and reducing the intensity of your emotions. Once the intensity of your emotions are reduced you can then behave in a more rational and appropriate manner.
Teaching this concept to young children, even as young as 2 or 4 years of age, can be extremely beneficial. Read How to Teach Young Children About Their Frontal Lobe for more information.
Besides learning and practicing cognitive behavior therapy, there are some specific lifestyle components that can impact the frontal lobe, either by enhancing or impairing it.
Things that impact the frontal lobe:
Addictions: Many addictions impair frontal lobe function. Alcohol use interferes with your dopamine production and can decrease activity level in the frontal lobe. Nicotine constricts blood flow to the brain. Drug use impairs cognitive and frontal lobe functioning. Pornography use, Entertainment TV and media or screen addiction can also suppresses frontal lobe functioning, stunt its growth and can reduce gray matter in that part of the brain. 1 (see reference below)
Diet: Refined foods, high sugar, high-fat diets and high meat-based diets all impair optimal functioning in the frontal lobe. 2
Music: Most music enters the brain through the emotional regions but some music can stimulate the frontal lobe. Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher, noted the impact of music in shaping our characters in his quote below,
“…when one listens to music that imitates a certain passion he becomes imbued with the same passion. If over a long time he habitually listens to the kind of music that rouses ignoble (degraded or vulgar) passions, his whole character will be shaped to an ignoble form. In short, if one listens to the wrong kind of music he will become the wrong kind of person; conversely, if he listens to the right kind of music he will tend to become the right kind of person.” 3
Exercise: aerobic training such as jogging, increases blood flow to your brain and improves frontal lobe functioning. 4
Sleep: Getting good, adequate sleep increases our melatonin production which in turn improves frontal lobe functioning.
Hypnosis/ meditation: These types of activities involve the conscious suppression of frontal lobe activity and should be avoided. 5
Moral objections: Even the act of regularly going against one’s conscience or known value or belief system can impede functioning in the frontal lobe.
In the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine; Nov-Dec 2016, Dr. Neil Nedley, MD, and Dr. Francisco E. Ramirez, MD produced an article called the Nedley Depression Hit Hypothesis: Identifying Depression and Its Causes in which they break down the frontal lobe hit category as a contributor to depression and anxiety.
“Frontal lobe hit category: On low carbohydrate diet, on high meat or high cheese diet or eating lots of rich food, entertainment TV or movie addiction, entertainment Internet or chat Internet addiction, frequent sexual stimulation that activates right frontal lobe, regular exposure to syncopated rhythm music and/or videos, conscious suppression of frontal lobe activity, lack of regular abstract thinking, acting against one’s conscience or known value system.” p. 2
Click the link here to access the full article: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1559827614550779
Biblical application of the frontal lobe:
Did you know there is even a practical, spiritual application of the frontal lobe and its direct affect on character development? The Bible makes multiple references to the importance of the “forehead” or “frontlets”. These references are actually referring to the frontal lobe. In this verse below, it talks about remembering the importance of the 10 commandments, the moral law, as you practice them in your behaviors by “binding them as a sign on your hand” but more importantly, by making conscious moral judgements and decisions to follow the law, as “they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”
“Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” ~Deuteronomy 11:18
In short, the frontal lobe is so crucial for character development and if we work at improving its function to an optimal level, it can actually increase our emotional intelligence. Who wouldn’t want to strengthen this part of our brain?
References:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5gqb5d/how-screen-addiction-is-ruining-the-brains-of-children; Retrieved October 5, 2018
Nedley, N. The Lost Art of Thinking. Nedley Publishing. 2011. p. 181
The Road from Eden: Studies in Christianity and Culture. Palo Alto, CA: Academica Press, p. 148, p. 228
Nedley, N. The Lost Art of Thinking. Nedley Publishing. 2011. p. 231
Nedley, N. & Ramirez, F.E. Nedley Depression Hit Hypothesis: Identifying Depression and Its Causes. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine; Nov-Dec 2016. p. 2.; Retrieved September 29, 2018