Let’s think about anything we have done, are doing or have to do. For example, I am writing this article. I attend to the speaker at a conference or the professor in class. I have to go shopping before the store closes. They seem like simple things to do, but each of these actions involves a series of high-level cognitive processes that allow me to carry them out.
These processes are called executive functions thanks to which we are able to act with a specific purpose.
Executive functions are understood to be the set of skills and cognitive processes that allow us to successfully adapt to the environment and solve problems by integrating the different information available, being able to carry out purposeful behaviors thanks to them. In general, it can be considered that they are responsible for controlling and self-regulating mental activity and cognitive resources, participating in aspects such as motivation or morality as well as information processing and behavior control.
It is a series of skills that are not completely innate, but are acquired and developed throughout the life cycle and development of the individual. In fact some of them do not finish maturing until around twenty-five years of age, this being something linked to brain maturation. Likewise, executive functions tend to decline as one ages, both normatively and if neurological problems occur.
The brain region that has been most linked to these functions is found in the frontal lobe. Specifically, it is a part of said lobe, the prefrontal cortex, that is most relevant when it comes to managing this set of skills.
Damage to this region will cause serious difficulties in higher mental processes that allow behavior management, as can be observed in different disorders and traumas. Furthermore, the development of executive functions is largely linked to prefrontal brain maturation, which does not occur until adulthood.
But this does not mean that executive functions are due solely to the prefrontal cortex. After all, the information that allows processes such as planning and reasoning are carried out It largely comes from other brain areas. For example, structures such as the limbic system, the hippocampus, the basal ganglia or the cerebellum stand out.
In fact, all complex brain processes are carried out by networks of nerve cells distributed throughout the brain, and in this sense executive functions are no exception to this rule. Thus, the areas specialized in certain functions are only partially, relatively, and in many cases, even if they are damaged, part of their work can be carried out by other networks of neurons over time.
What kind of features are included?
As we have said, by executive functions we understand a set of skills and processes that are very useful for our survival and adaptation. But what are they? Some of the main and most important ones are the following.
Be able to use the different information and see the possible connections between them as well as developing possible explanations.
2. Planning
This executive function is what allows us to develop action plans It allows us to generate a series of steps that will take us to a specific goal.
3. Goal setting
Linked to motivation, it is the ability that allows us to decide how to invest our energies and where to direct our behaviors.
4. Decision making
It is about the ability allows us to determine which option to choose among the many that can be presented to us.
5. Starting and ending tasks
Although it may seem strange, starting tasks at a specific time is an important cognitive activity. The same goes for the ability to determine when an action should be completed.
6. Organization
It is about the ability to combine and structure information in an efficient and useful way.
7. Inhibition
The ability to inhibit is another of the executive functions and one of the most relevant. This is the ability that allows us to regulate our actions by stopping behavior. It makes us able to resist specific impulses cease an action and prevent innocuous information from interfering with our conduct.
8. Monitoring
It refers to the ability to maintain attention on the task and regulate what and how we are doing what we are doing.
9. Verbal and non-verbal working memory
It is about the ability to store information so that the subject can operate with it later. Both verbally and non-verbally.
This ability allows us to foresee in advance the results of an action and/or its consequences. It is a projection into the future of our memories, what we have learned through experience.
11. Flexibility
The ability to be flexible is what allows us to change our way of acting or thinking in the face of possible changes environmental or modify ongoing actions.
Some disorders in which they appear altered
Different disorders and injuries in the brain They can cause executive functions to not be carried out correctly, causing significant adaptation problems.
Some of the disorders affecting this area can occur from childhood, as occurs with people who suffer from ADHD. These children present problems such as difficulties starting a task, poor ability to inhibit and to make and follow plans or problems retaining information in working memory.
Other disorders in which this happens are dementia, in which the neurodegenerative process causes impairment that makes it difficult to maintain executive functions. Examples of this can be found in dementias such as that caused by Huntington’s chorea disease, or frontal dementias.
In any case, even without any type of disorder executive functions usually begin to show some decline from the sixth decade of life in a normalized manner.
