Now, soon, ever: Time scales of frontal integration

Anticipation, required in both prognosis and planning, occurs on different time scales, and we also become differently aware of being engaged in it. Recent findings of scientists at the MPI for Neurological Research corroborate the view that the frontal lobes play a crucial role in anticipation in general. In particular, the frontal brain’s function in integrating relations into superordinate ones seems reflected by its hierarchical functional-anatomical architecture. Interestingly, even highly abstract kinds of prognoses still call for regions that, on demand, spell out our expectations in the seconds range.