What is the function of the right fronto-polar region?

Right Frontopolar Region Function

The right frontopolar region (right frontal pole) serves as a critical hub for complex cognitive control, specifically enabling the simultaneous maintenance of primary goals while exploring and processing secondary subgoals—a capacity essential for planning, multitasking, and relational reasoning. 1

Core Cognitive Functions

Goal Hierarchy Management

• The right frontopolar cortex uniquely activates when individuals must hold a main goal in mind while concurrently performing subgoals, a process distinct from simple working memory or dual-task performance 1
• This region enables exploration and processing of secondary goals without losing track of overarching objectives, which is fundamentally required for complex planning and reasoning 1

Functional Subdivisions

• The lateral frontopolar area (Fp1) participates in networks underlying cognition, working memory, and perception 2
• The medial frontopolar area (Fp2) contributes to affective processing and social cognition 2
• The lateral frontal pole specifically connects to the executive control network, supporting directed attention and working memory functions 3

Emotional and Social Regulation

Emotional Action Control

• The right lateral frontal pole contributes to regulation of prepotent approach-avoidance action tendencies elicited by emotional faces 4
• Structural connectivity strength between the lateral frontal pole and amygdala accounts for 10-20% of individual variation in emotional regulation abilities 4
• This region implements cognitively complex forms of emotional action regulation through the ventral amygdalofugal pathway 4

Clinical and Research Context

Brain Stimulation Targeting

• The frontal pole has been targeted in transcranial magnetic stimulation studies for addiction medicine, though less frequently than dorsolateral prefrontal cortex 5
• Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) protocols have been applied to the left frontal pole in substance use disorder research 5

Evolutionary Significance

• The frontopolar cortex represents the most expanded region in the human brain compared to ancestral primates, reflecting its role in specifically human cognitive abilities 2
• The lateral frontal pole lacks a homologous counterpart in macaque brains, suggesting uniquely human computational capacities 4

Important Caveats

The right frontopolar region should not be confused with the right inferior frontal gyrus (particularly pars opercularis), which serves the distinct function of behavioral/motor inhibition and response stopping 5, 6. While both are prefrontal regions involved in cognitive control, their specific computational roles differ fundamentally—the frontopolar cortex manages goal hierarchies while the inferior frontal gyrus generates "stop commands" 5, 6.