title: Modular networks involving the medial frontal cortex: towards the development of neuropsychiatry.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The pathophysiology of mental disorders is largely unresolved. We propose that the identification of abnormalities in brain modular networks will provide a promising approach for the understanding of mental disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  We review the current discussion on the neuroscientific basis of psychiatric diseases and review recent studies in functional neuroimaging and systems physiology on mental functions of the human brain.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We propose that brain functional units are organized in modular networks. Modular networks allow for flexibility within the modular processing units and across interconnected modules affording optimization of task performance and deficit compensation in disease. As an example it will be shown that differentiated modules in medial frontal cortex play a critical role for the control of behaviour. This will be contrasted to recent studies in neurological and psychiatric patients revealing behavioural abnormalities due to lesions or reversibly deprived functions in the medial frontal cortex.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings are conceptualized as starting points for a neuroscience based diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases at the border of psychiatry and neurology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany. seitz@neurologie.uni-duesseldorf.de
authors.forename: Rüdiger J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Seitz
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gaebel
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zielasek
mesh_terms: D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D058027:Neuropsychiatry