The role of prefrontal cortex in cognitive control and executive function

By Naomi P. Friedman, Trevor W. Robbins. Neuropsychopharmacology, 2021

1,374 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Concepts of cognitive control (CC) and executive function (EF) are defined in terms of their relationships with goal-directed behavior versus habits and controlled versus automatic processing, and related to the functions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and related regions and networks. A psychometric approach shows unity and diversity in CC constructs, with 3 components in the most commonly studied constructs: general or common CC and components specific to mental set shifting and working memory updating. These constructs are considered against the cellular and systems neurobiology of PFC and what is known of its functional neuroanatomical or network organization based on lesioning, neurochemical, and neuroimaging approaches across species. CC is also considered in the context of motivation, as “cool” and “hot” forms. Its Common CC component is shown to be distinct from general intelligence ( g ) and closely related to response inhibition. Impairments in CC are considered as possible causes of psychiatric symptoms and consequences of disorders. The relationships of CC with the general factor of psychopathology (p) and dimensional constructs such as impulsivity in large scale developmental and adult populations are considered, as well as implications for genetic studies and RDoC approaches to psychiatric classification.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3a30f9aacdbb894a25b1791d3d1a6b7312d4840b

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Chunpeng Zhai
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Citations in the corpus

The effects of over-reliance on AI dialogue systems on students' cognitive abilities: a systematic review (2024, background): “…for academic rigor and avoiding laziness, suggesting that disengagement from challenging cognitive tasks could potentially weaken activities in key neural regions: the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the amygdala and prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the hippocampus (Friedman & Robbins, 2022).”
An intracranial dissection of human escape circuits (2024, unknown): “Collectively, these results emphasize the importance of the cognitive fear circuit in processing threat information and promoting successful human escape 56,78,79 .”
NEUROPSYCHOPEDAGOGICAL INTERVENTION WITH THE RUBIK’S CUBE: IMPACT ON EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS AND CORTICAL ACTIVITY IN EARLY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN (2025, unknown): “Given these role in filtering irrelevant information and modulating motor responses (Friedman & Robbins, 2022).”
Modulating prefrontal cortex activity to alleviate stress-induced working memory deficits: A transcranial direct current (tDCS) study (2024, unknown): “For instance, the vmPFC and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) are primarily involved in emotion regulation and mediating amygdala processing (Dixon et al., 2017; Etkin et al., 2011), whereas the dlPFC plays a key role in WM (Barbey et al., 2013; Friedman & Robbins, 2021).”
Would frontal midline theta indicate cognitive changes induced by non-invasive brain stimulation? A mini review (2023, background): “The other component is a set of “executive processes” associated with goal-directed behavior that operates on the content of the storage or representational system managed by the PFC and related networks (Smith and Jonides, 1999; Friedman and Robbins, 2022; Menon and D’Esposito, 2022; Ratcliffe et a”