Development of executive functions in children with frontal lobe lesions

执行功能（Executive functions， EF），指的是解决问题的能力、灵活抽象的思维能力和注意力集中的能力。EFs对于管理日常生活活动至关重要。人们认为，大脑额叶在协调电磁场中起着重要作用。在儿童时期，额叶区域正在迅速发育，由于儿童在环境中正常运作的能力受损，损害可能会影响持续的发展，干扰适应功能，如学习新知识和推理。儿童的执行功能障碍表现为组织混乱、冲动、注意力不集中和行为不当。由于高度结构化的环境以及父母和照料者在日常活动中的支持，这些问题往往在幼儿期被掩盖。然而，随着孩子的成熟，对独立性的期望增加，执行力的缺陷变得更加明显。孩子长大后就会遇到这些问题)。适当的治疗和管理取决于：(i)改善对有此类后遗症风险的患者的早期识别；（ii）确定执行赤字对持续发展的长期影响。这项研究的目的是促进我们对脑电图及其在儿童时期的发展的理解，包括健康儿童和脑损伤到被认为包含脑电图的区域（即额叶）的儿童。虽然轶事案例数据是可用的，但据我们所知，没有其他研究试图使用纵向组设计来做到这一点。具体预测包括：(i)与其他大脑区域受损的儿童和健康儿童相比，额叶受损的儿童在EF测量方面的表现更差；（二）额叶受损的儿童随着时间的推移在EF任务上表现出越来越大的缺陷，这反映出与额叶以外的大脑区域局部受损的儿童和健康儿童相比，他们无法在预期的时间范围内获得执行技能。

Executive functions (EF), refer to the ability to problem solve, think flexibly and in abstract terms and pay attention. EFs are essential for managing daily life activities. The frontal lobes of the brain are believed be important in coordinating EFs. In childhood, frontal areas are developing rapidly and damage may affect ongoing development due to impairments in a child's capacity to function normally within their environment, interfering with adaptive functions such as new learning and reasoning. Executive dysfunction in children manifests as disorganisation, impulsivity, inattention and inappropriate behaviour. Such problems are often masked in early chilhood, due to highly structured environments and support of parents and care-givers in day-to-day activities. However, as children mature, expectations of indepence increase and executive deficits become more apparent (ie. child 'grows into' these problems). Appropriate treatment and management is dependent on (i) improvement in early identification of patients at risk for such sequelae; (ii) establishing long-term consequences of executive deficits to ongoing development. This research aims to advance our understanding of EFs and their development through childhood, both in healthy children and children with cerebral lesions to regions believed to subsume EFs(ie the frontal lobes). While anecdotal case data is available, to our knowledge, no other study has attempted to do this using a longitudinal group design. Specific predictions include; (i) Children with frontal lobe damage will perform more poorly on EF measures, in comparison to children with damage to other cerebral areas and healthy children; (ii) Children with frontal lobe damage will show increasing deficits on EF tasks over time, reflecting an inability to acquire executive skills in the expected time frame, when compared with children with localised damage to cerebral areas excluding the frontal lobes, and healthy children.