Executive control

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is known to be involved in working memory, executive control, attention, and decision making. It integrates internal information and states with external information from the environment which results in timely and appropriate behavioral responses. It remains unknown how distinct excitatory cell types within PFC contribute to population activity and behavior. We investigate two major excitatory cell types within the PFC - extratelencephalic (ET) and intratelencephalic (IT) neurons. Anatomical analysis in transgenic mouse lines shows that ET neurons project to subcor

…Aspects of such cognitive control in rodents are supported by the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The mPFC and its subareas are a site of distinct delay-related activity during motor preparation. However, how mPFC integrates relevant information and exercises the control over behavioral responses remains incompletely understood. Here we characterized local field potentials (LFPs) within mPFC with a focus on the detection of beta bursts – discrete oscillatory events in t

…differences in trait anxiety and executive control biases on behavioral efficacy. In scope were male and female non-clinical samples of adult young age that performed non-emotional tasks assessing basic attentional functioning (Attention Network Test – Interactions, ANT-I), sustained attention (Test of Variables of Attention, TOVA), and visual recognition abilities (Object in Location Recognition Task, OLRT). Results confirmed the intricate nature of the relationship

Language production is a form of behavior and as such involves executive control and the prefrontal function. The cognitive architecture of prefrontal executive function thus certainly plays an important role in shaping language production. In this talk, I will review the main features of the prefrontal executive function we have uncovered during the last two decades and I will discuss how these features may help understanding language production.

Executive control processes and flexible behaviors rely on the integrity of, and dynamic interactions between, large-scale functional brain networks. The right insular cortex is a critical component of a salience/midcingulo-insular network that is thought to mediate interactions between brain networks involved in externally oriented (central executive/lateral frontoparietal network) and internally oriented (default mode/medial frontoparietal network) processes. How these brain systems reconfigure with development is a critical question for cognitive neuroscience, with implications for neurodev

…the seminar by arguing that agentive control is the key requirement for free will, drawing on folk-philosophy findings to support this claim (Gavenas et al., in prep). They explore how two executive control processes that functionally involve consciousness—inhibition and top-down control of attention—connect self-control and free will.

…are: intention, initiation, feeling, executive control and decision-making. Decision-making will be the focus of this talk, which steps through aspects of the philosophy of fre