Head injuries will often result in damage to the brain itself. While many people know about some of the symptoms related to concussions or general head trauma, fewer people know about the impacts related to specific parts of the brain.
What happens when the frontal lobe ends up injured? How does a person deal with this situation and what effects may they face?
Parts of the frontal lobe
Physiopedia talks about frontal lobe damage in victims of head injuries. Injuries to the frontal lobe can manifest differently in everyone based on several factors like the intensity of the impact that caused the wound, the age of the victim and more.
However, many of these injuries will reflect similar impacts due to the fact that the frontal lobe controls the same parts of the body, mind and emotions in every person.
What the prefrontal cortex impacts
For example, the frontal lobe contains the prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain holds responsibility for executive function, critical thinking, emotional and behavioral regulation, impulse control and more. This is why many victims report feeling unusually agitated or easy to anger. They may even lash out at loved ones even if this is extremely unlike them.
Memory loss and storage
Memory storage also takes place in part in the frontal lobe. Because of this, some victims may end up dealing with memory loss. They could struggle to code short-term memories into long-term ones, too. These effects can last weeks to months, or even years, forcing a victim to readjust their entire way of living to accommodate.
These impacts can serve as debilitating issues to many who suffer from this type of brain injury.