Self-Regulation and the Executive Functions

Publisher Summary Cognitive models describe executive functions as higher level processes that exert control over elementary mental operations. As recognized in the cognitive analysis of attention, concepts of executive functions run the risk of invoking a homunculus executive function in the ability to integrate negative feedback. By considering current electrophysiological findings in humans in relation to neurophysiological findings in animal research, this chapter proposes that there are important new perspectives to be gained on the intrinsic mechanisms of human self-regulation. Modern cognitive neuroimaging methods have allowed researchers to study the relation between executive functions and the anterior cingulate cortex. An influential model has followed from the remarkable specificity of responses in the dopamine pathway to violations of expectancy for reward cues. By clarifying the elementary mechanisms of self-regulation in limbic, thalamic, and striatal circuits, it may be possible to build a more accurate model of the functions of the cortex. Research on the error-related negativity component has provided one of the closest links between data obtained from animal experiments and electrophysiological and hemodynamic data obtained from human studies.

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