The prefrontal cortex is my favorite part of the brain for two reasons. One – it’s the most fun part to say and two – in my opinion, it’s responsible for most of the cool stuff.
Covering the front part of the frontal lobe, the prefrontal cortex is responsible for a long list of imperative human functioning abilities psychologically known as your “executive functions”.
Executive functions include the ability to:
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differentiate between conflicting thoughts
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determine good and bad / better and best / same and different
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anticipate future consequences of current activities
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work toward a defined goal
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predict potential outcomes
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have realistic expectations based on actions
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socially control yourself (suppress urges that could lead to socially unacceptable outcomes)
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express your personality
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make decisions
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regulate attention + distraction
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control impulses
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regulate emotions
If you boil all of these functions down to their common denominator, you’ll recognize that the basic activity of the prefrontal cortex is the orchestration of thoughts/actions in accordance with internal goals. To me, I read that sentence and I see: MY PREFRONTAL CORTEX IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MATCHING THE ME I WANT TO BE UP WITH THE ME THAT I AM. And that is something I absolutely want.
Ok guys, that’s it for this post. I just wanted to share the basics of the prefrontal cortex so we can all geek out over it. Next week for part 2 of the prefrontal cortex series, I’m gonna be sharing a post with some ideas on how to strengthen your prefrontal cortex.
Looking forward to your thoughts,
JM
LINKS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/