The Prefontal Cortex
Executive functions take place in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. I love the term that Stanislas Dehaene uses to describe this part of the brain—a global neuronal workspace. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for the ability to exchange information across the high-level areas of the brain, Dehaene says, so that our behavior can be guided by our accumulated knowledge. That’s the beauty and the purpose of executive functions: they enable us to control ourselves, to reflect deeply, and to consider things from multiple points of view, as we’ll see below.
Notes:
Insightful description of its purpose in executive function, taking the information stored in our brains to control the rest of it.
Taxonomies:
/health and fitness/disorders/mental disorder/a.d.d. (0.704669)
/health and fitness/disease/epilepsy (0.495696)
/health and fitness/disease (0.342101)
Keywords:
prefrontal cortex (0.997449 (negative:-0.232870)), Prefontal Cortex Insightful (0.949310 (neutral:0.000000)), global neuronal workspace (0.749031 (positive:0.482340)), executive functions (0.664641 (positive:0.361554)), Stanislas Dehaene (0.652312 (positive:0.482340)), executive function (0.477195 (neutral:0.000000)), high-level areas (0.477006 (neutral:0.000000)), multiple points (0.451123 (neutral:0.000000)), purpose (0.294790 (positive:0.594424)), information (0.294346 (negative:-0.244141)), brain (0.289706 (negative:-0.232870)), brains (0.283269 (negative:-0.244141)), rest (0.269368 (negative:-0.244141)), ability (0.252723 (neutral:0.000000)), description (0.252638 (neutral:0.000000)), place (0.247999 (negative:-0.232870)), term (0.246546 (positive:0.482340)), brain—a (0.246111 (positive:0.482340)), beauty (0.244843 (positive:0.594424)), behavior (0.243991 (neutral:0.000000)), things (0.243967 (neutral:0.000000))
Entities:
Stanislas Dehaene:Person (0.907856 (positive:0.482340)), executive:JobTitle (0.710128 (positive:0.180777))
Concepts:
Brain (0.970832): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Prefrontal cortex (0.630091): dbpedia | freebase
Human brain (0.627469): dbpedia | freebase
Premotor cortex (0.576028): dbpedia | freebase
Cerebrum (0.565035): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Cerebellum (0.494170): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Neuron (0.469185): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Mind in the Making