The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is used to describe a broad area in the lower (ventral) central (medial) region of the prefrontal cortex
The ventral medial prefrontal is located in the frontal lobe at the bottom of the cerebral hemispheres and is implicated in the processing of risk and fear. It also plays a role in the inhibition of emotional responses, and in the process of decision making.
Again, I am skipping massive amounts of detail. The purpose here is only to mention that the brain is affected by trauma and this explains why we behaved and reacted the way we did after the trauma. In the long term, things that were once easy, like talking to certain people, may become difficult. Uncertainty creeps in where we were once confident. This also acts as a filter, filtering what we allow into our brains.
There are only a few reports of people with early-onset vmPFC damage duri ng childhood, but these individuals tend to have severe antisocial behavior and impaired moral judgment. Compared to individuals with damage later in life, their behavior pattern is similar but more severe.
Lower activation in the prefrontal cortex is also correlated with antisocial behavior. The dysfunction of the ventromedial cortex seem to, in part, be caused by lower levels of serotonin release.
The vmPFC is also involved in courage. In experiments with participants allowing snakes to come near or away from them, acts of courage correlated with activation in the vmPFC, Activation of the vmPFC is associated with successful suppression of emotional responses … Their emotional responsivity is generally diminished and they show markedly reduced social emotions such as compassion, shame and guilt. These are emotions that are closely associated with moral values.
Patients also exhibit poorly regulated anger and frustration tolerance in certain circumstances.
Patients with focal lesions in the vmPFC show personality changes such as lack of empathy, irresponsibility, and poor decision making; similar to psychopathic personality traits.
It receives inputs from the thalamus and the neocortex, and projects to the entorhinal cortex via the cingulum. It is an integral part of the limbic system, which is involved with emotion formation and processing, learning, and memory. The combination of these three functions makes the cingulate gyrus highly influential in linking behavioral outcomes to motivation (e.g. a certain action induced a positive emotional response, which results in learning). This role makes the cingulate cortex highly important in disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. It also plays a role in executive function and respiratory control.
Studies have found the frontal lobes to be involved in the executive functions of the brain, which are higher level cognitive processes. This control process is involved in the coordination, planning and organizing of actions towards an individual’s goals. It contributes to such things as one’s behavior, language and reasoning. More specifically, it was found to be the function of the prefrontal cortex, and evidence suggest that these executive functions control processes such as planning and decision making, error correction and assisting overcoming habitual responses. … They found lateralization of verbal working memory in the left frontal cortex and visuospatial working memory in the right frontal cortex. Lesion studies support these findings where left frontal lobe patients exhibited problems in controlling executive functions such as creating strategies.
This is where we “connect” with other people.
Cingulate Cortex