Cortical area · one in each half of the brain
Frontal pole
Also called Frontopolar cortex, Part of Brodmann area 10
The very tip of your brain: juggling goals and thinking about your own thinking.
The frontal pole is the very front tip of the brain, right behind your forehead. It is involved in some of the most abstract kinds of thinking: juggling several goals at once, weighing options you have not tried yet, and judging how confident you are in your own decisions. It draws on signals from many other brain areas, including those for the senses, memory and movement.
Where it is
At the very front tip of each half of the brain, just behind your forehead and above your eyebrows.
What it does
Juggling goals
It lets you pause one task, handle another, and then return to the first right where you left off.
Exploring new options
It helps you decide when to try something new instead of sticking with what you know.
Thinking about thinking
It helps you judge how sure you are about a decision, a skill called metacognition.
Remembering to do things
It helps you hold on to an intention, like buying milk on the way home, while you are busy with other things.
Think of it as a bookmark and a mirror: it saves your place in one task while you handle another, and it lets you look back at your own thinking.
Works with
- Dorsolateral prefrontal cortexIt passes high-level goals to this neighbor, which turns them into step-by-step plans.
- Medial orbitofrontal cortexThis neighbor below supplies information about how rewarding each option is.
- Posterior cingulate cortexIts inner part teams up with the posterior cingulate in the default mode network, which is active when you daydream or imagine the future.
- Angular gyrus regionLinks with the angular gyrus region help it bring together ideas and memories from across the brain.
When it goes wrong
Everyday multitasking
People with damage around the front tip of the brain can do well on standard IQ tests yet struggle in daily life, for example forgetting errands or failing to organize a busy day.
For learning only, not medical advice. If you have a health concern, talk to a doctor.
Surprising facts
- Compared with other apes, humans have more space between the nerve cells of the frontal pole, leaving more room for connections.
Where the name comes from
"Pole" comes from the Latin "polus", the end of an axis, like the North Pole. The frontal, temporal and occipital lobes each have a pole at their tip, and this is the tip of the frontal lobe.
Quick quiz
3 questions. Your answers are saved and come back in your daily review.
Which of these is a job of the frontal pole?
Show the answer
Juggling goals. It lets you pause one task, handle another, and then return to the first right where you left off.
Juggling goals. It lets you pause one task, handle another, and then return to the first right where you left off.
The frontal pole is part of which larger structure?
Show the answer
Prefrontal cortex. It belongs to the prefrontal cortex.
Prefrontal cortex. It belongs to the prefrontal cortex.
Which part fits this description? "Like a bookmark and a mirror: it saves your place in one task while you handle another, and it lets you look back at your own thinking."
Show the answer
Frontal pole. It is the frontal pole. The very tip of your brain: juggling goals and thinking about your own thinking.
Frontal pole. It is the frontal pole. The very tip of your brain: juggling goals and thinking about your own thinking.
These parts now come back in your daily review, just before you would forget them.
Practice it and its neighbors in 3DSources
- Damage to the Fronto-Polar Cortex Is Associated with Impaired Multitasking, PLOS ONE
- Domain-specific impairment in metacognitive accuracy following anterior prefrontal lesions, Brain (Oxford Academic)
- Rostral Prefrontal Cortex and the Focus of Attention in Prospective Memory, Cerebral Cortex (Oxford Academic)
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Explore the frontal pole in 3D
Turn it around, zoom inside and see how it connects to the rest of the brain, then test yourself with quick quizzes.
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