Parietal lobe: 10 years before signs of Alzheimer, sense of smell and direction

Alzheimer’s, Prefrontal cortex and parietal lobe

The executive control center of the brain, the prefrontal cortex and the parietal lobe are responsible for behaviors, problem solving and sense of smell.

Decreased sense of smell may indicate early dementia. Loss of sense of smell may indicate onset of some types of dementia, researchers say. Previous research has associated olfactory loss, or anosmia, with cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

Loss of sense of taste can indicate onset of Parkinson’s.

Exercise for the brain

Take deep breathing thru your nose and lift your arms and bend your knees. Walking and swimming are beneficial exercises for the brain.

Nutrients for the brain

• green tea
• Rhodiola
• Ginseng
• Ashwagandha
• Omega 3 with higher EPA
• Zinc
• L-tyrosine
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin C and B complex
• Calcium and magnesium

Connie Dello Buono

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Parietal lobe

The parietal lobe is located directly behind the central sulcus, superior to the occipital lobe and posterior to the frontal lobe, visually at the top of the back of the head.^[18] The make up of the parietal lobe is defined by four anatomical boundaries in the brain, providing a division of all the four lobes.^[18]

The parietal lobe has many functions and duties in the brain and its main functioning can be divided down into two main areas: (1) sensation and perception (2) constructing a spatial coordinate system to represent the world around us.^[19] The parietal lobe helps us to mediate attention when necessary and provides spatial awareness and navigational skills. Also, it integrates all of our sensory information (touch, sight, pain etc.) to form a single perception.^[19] Parietal lobe gives the ability to focus our attention on different stimuli at the same time, PET scans show high activity in the parietal lobe when participates being studied were asked to focus their attention at two separate areas of attention.^[19] Parietal lobe also assists with verbal short term memory and damage to the supramarginal gyrus cause short term memory loss.^[20]

Damage to the parietal lobe results in the syndrome ‘neglect’ which is when patients treat part of their body or objects in their visual field as though it never existed. Damage to the left side of the parietal lobe can result in what is called Gerstmann syndrome.^[21] It includes right-left confusion, difficulty with writing (agraphia) and difficulty with mathematics (acalculia). It can also produce disorders of language (aphasia) and the inability to perceive objects.^[21] Damage to the right parietal lobe can result in neglecting part of the body or space (contralateral neglect), which can impair many self-care skills such as dressing and washing. Right side damage can also cause difficulty in making things (constructional apraxia), denial of deficits (anosognosia) and drawing ability.^[21] Neglect syndrome tends to be more prevalent on the right side of the parietal lobe, because the right mediates attention to both the left and right fields.^[21] Damage in the somatic sensory cortex results in loss of perception of bodily sensations, namely sense of touch.

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Transgenic mouse models hold promise for elucidating the genetic basis of human pathophysiological conditions including addiction, schizophrenia, and dementia. These disorders typically involve changes in the regulation of emotion, behavioral flexibility, working memory, and decision making, behaviors that are critically dependent on different regions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The ability to use precise molecular genetic tools to study the cellular mechanisms underlying PFC function has resulted in a sudden increase in the use of mice in the study of brain and behavior. A very little is known about the structural organization of the mouse PFC including its morphology, and its connections with other brain regions. In addition, behavioral studies in mice depend critically on behavioral paradigms that are available to assess complex cognitive and emotional functions.

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