Anatom3DPrefrontal cortex
Cortex praefrontalis · Prefrontální kůra
Nervous system
Looks like
The front third of the brain's surface, behind the forehead.
What it does
Planning, judgement, holding back impulses and holding things in mind.
Keeping it well
Sleep, exercise and practice; it is the last part to mature, around 25, and the first to suffer from alcohol and poor sleep.
Its parts
Related conditions
- Acute liver failure
- ADHD
- Adjustment disorder
- African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness)
- Alcohol withdrawal and delirium tremens
- Altitude sickness
- Alzheimer's disease
- Amyloidosis (AL and ATTR)
- Autism spectrum disorder
- Bipolar disorder
- Birth asphyxia (hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy)
- Body dysmorphic disorder
- Borderline personality disorder
- Botulism
- Brain abscess
- Brain aneurysm
- Brain tumour (glioma & meningioma)
- Burnout
- Cerebral palsy
- Chickenpox (varicella)
- Chronic insomnia
- Chronic neuropathic pain
- Chronic pain syndrome
- Cluster headache
- Concussion (mild TBI)
- Conduct disorder
- Congenital hypothyroidism
- Cryptococcal meningitis
- Delirium
- Dementia with Lewy bodies
- Dissociative disorders
- Down syndrome (trisomy 21)
- Drowning
- Eating disorders
- Encephalitis
- Epilepsy
- Essential tremor & dystonia
- Fainting (syncope)
- Febrile seizures
- Fibromyalgia
- Fragile X syndrome
- Frailty & falls in older age
- Frontotemporal dementia
- Functional (somatic) symptom disorder
- Gambling disorder
- Generalised anxiety disorder
- Guillain-Barré syndrome
- Haemorrhagic stroke
- Heat exhaustion & heatstroke
- Hepatic encephalopathy
- Huntington's disease
- Hydrocephalus
- Hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar)
- Intellectual disability
- Ischaemic stroke
- Japanese encephalitis
- Lead poisoning
- Long COVID (post-viral syndrome)
- Lyme disease
- Major depressive disorder
- ME/chronic fatigue syndrome
- Measles
- Medication-overuse headache
- Meningitis
- Migraine
- Multiple sclerosis
- Myasthenia gravis
- Narcolepsy
- Neurocysticercosis
- Normal pressure hydrocephalus
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Parkinson's disease
- Peripheral neuropathy
- Phenylketonuria (PKU)
- Poisoning & overdose
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Postnatal depression
- Postpartum psychosis
- Premenstrual syndrome and PMDD
- Rabies
- Restless legs syndrome
- Roseola (sixth disease)
- Schizophrenia
- Self-harm and suicidal crisis
- Shingles (herpes zoster)
- Social anxiety disorder
- Subdural haematoma
- Substance use disorder
- Tension-type headache
- Tetanus
- Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP)
- Tick-borne encephalitis
- Tics and Tourette syndrome
- Toxoplasmosis & CMV
- Transient ischaemic attack
- Traumatic brain injury (moderate to severe)
- Tuberous sclerosis complex
- Vascular dementia
- Vitamin B1, C and other deficiencies