News tagged with cognitive control

Brain imaging can predict how intelligent you are, study finds

(Medical Xpress) -- When it comes to intelligence, what factors distinguish the brains of exceptionally smart humans from those of average humans?

Neuroscience created Aug 01, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (22) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Researchers show that suppressing the brain's 'filter' can improve performance in creative tasks

(Medical Xpress)—The brain's prefrontal cortex is thought to be the seat of cognitive control, working as a kind of filter that keeps irrelevant thoughts, perceptions and memories from interfering with ...

Neuroscience created Mar 14, 2013 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (15) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

The Marshmallow Study revisited: Delaying gratification depends as much on nurture as on nature

For the past four decades, the "marshmallow test" has served as a classic experimental measure of children's self-control: will a preschooler eat one of the fluffy white confections now or hold out for two ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created Oct 11, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Diabetes drug metformin makes brain cells grow

The widely used diabetes drug metformin comes with a rather unexpected and alluring side effect: it encourages the growth of new neurons in the brain. The study reported in the July 6th issue of Cell Stem Cell also finds ...

Medical research created Jul 05, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Birth control pills affect memory, study finds

Women who use contraceptives like birth control pills experience memory changes, according to new UC Irvine research. Their ability to remember the gist of an emotional event improves, while women not using the contraceptives ...

Neuroscience created Sep 09, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Theta brainwaves reflect ability to beat built-in bias

Vertebrates are predisposed to act to gain rewards, and to lay low to avoid punishment. Try to teach chickens to back away from food in order to obtain it, and you'll fail, as researchers did in 1986. But ...

Neuroscience created May 07, 2013 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

The beat goes in the brain: Visual system can be entrained to future events

(Medical Xpress)—Like a melody that keeps playing in your head even after the music stops, researchers at the University of Illinois's Beckman Institute have shown that the beat goes on when it comes to ...

Neuroscience created Aug 28, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

'Explorers,' who embrace the uncertainty of choices, use specific part of cortex

Life shrouds most choices in mystery. Some people inch toward a comfortable enough spot and stick close to that rewarding status quo. Out to dinner, they order the usual. Others consider their options systematically ...

Neuroscience created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Internet addiction disorder characterized by abnormal white matter integrity

Internet addiction disorder may be associated with abnormal white matter structure in the brain, as reported in the Jan. 11 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE. These structural features may be linked to behavioral impair ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created Jan 11, 2012 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Obesity is associated with altered brain function

In most western countries the annual increase in the prevalence and the severity of obesity is currently substantial. Although obesity typically results simply from excessive energy intake, it is currently ...

Medical research created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Researchers identify promising treatments for chronic fatigue

(Medical Xpress)—Two treatments most likely to lead to recovery from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) have been identified by UK researchers.

Psychology & Psychiatry created Jan 31, 2013 | popularity 1.3 / 5 (12) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Violent video games alter brain function in young men

A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analysis of long-term effects of violent video game play on the brain has found changes in brain regions associated with cognitive function and emotional control in young adult ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created Nov 30, 2011 | popularity 2.1 / 5 (7) | comments 4

In older adults, fluctuating sense of control linked to cognitive ability

Everyone has moments when they feel more in control of their lives than at other times. New research from North Carolina State University shows that this sense of control fluctuates more often, and more quickly, than previously ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created Feb 13, 2012 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Exercise improves memory, thinking after stroke, study finds

Just six months of exercise can improve memory, language, thinking and judgment problems by almost 50 per cent, says a study presented today at the Canadian Stroke Congress.

Cardiology created Oct 01, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Mummies tell history of a 'modern' plague

Mummies from along the Nile are revealing how age-old irrigation techniques may have boosted the plague of schistosomiasis, a water-borne parasitic disease that infects an estimated 200 million people today.

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created May 23, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Executive functions

The executive system is a theorized cognitive system in psychology that controls and manages other cognitive processes. It is also referred to as the executive function, executive functions, supervisory attentional system, or cognitive control.

The concept is used by psychologists and neuroscientists to describe a loosely defined collection of brain processes which are responsible for planning, cognitive flexibility, abstract thinking, rule acquisition, initiating appropriate actions and inhibiting inappropriate actions, and selecting relevant sensory information.[citations needed]

For more information about Executive functions, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: brain