Cognitive control, hierarchy, and the rostro-caudal organization of the frontal lobes.

Full Abstract

Cognitive control supports flexible behavior by selecting actions that are consistent with our goals and appropriate for our environment. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) has an established role in cognitive control, and research on the functional organization of PFC promises to contribute to our understanding of the architecture of control. A recently popular hypothesis is that the rostro-caudal axis of PFC supports a control hierarchy whereby posterior-to-anterior PFC mediates progressively abstract, higher-order control. This review discusses evidence for a rostro-caudal gradient of function in PFC and the theories proposed to account for these results, including domain generality in working memory, relational complexity, the temporal organization of behavior and abstract representational hierarchy. Distinctions among these frameworks are considered as a basis for future research.

Author information

Author/s: Badre, David (D);

Affiliation: Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, Brown University, Box 1978, Providence, RI 02912-1978, USA. David_Badre(-atsign-)brown.edu

Grants: F32 NS053337 (Agency:NINDS NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Review

Journal: Trends in cognitive sciences (Trends Cogn Sci), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-May; vol 12 (issue 5) : pp 193-200

Dates: Created 2008/05/05; Completed 2008/08/19;

PMID: 18403252, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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