Executive function is a set of mental tasks that include working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control. These tasks are part of the brain’s frontal lobe functionality and are in charge of every day to learning, working, and managing daily life. Deficiencies with executive function can make it hard to focus, follow directions, handle emotions, among other things.
The executive function is “the management system of the brain” that lets us set goals, plan, and get things done. Executive functions usually develop in early childhood and into the teen years, but they keep developing into the mid-20s.
Trouble with executive function can affect people in different ways. The difficulties often look like signs of ADHD but they are also related to Developmental Trauma and to Complex Trauma (C-PTSD).
The prefrontal cortex is the key structure for performing executive functions. Top-down signals are used to retrieve specific information stored in long-term memory. The prefrontal cortex sends top-down signals to the posterior cortices to control information retrieval. The abundance of connectivity between the PFC and the rest of the brain suggests that a definition of executive function can be obtained from the dynamics of converging networks into the cortical layers of the lateral PFC. The persistence of these signals through time is a fundamental neurobiological substrate that enables the organization of executive actions.
The PFC is involved in the functioning and regulation of:
ability to formulate behavioral plans
ability to ignore external distractions
ability to perceive the spatial relationships between one's self and the environment,
abstraction
active problem solving
actively encoding and retrieving information
analyze pictorial detail
attention and orientation
attention to demanding cognitive tasks
aversive tastes and pleasurable taste
behavioral self-regulation
bimanual coordination
carry out new and goal-directed patterns of behavior
changing behavior according to task demands or representing past events, current goals, and
future predictions
Complex planning
conflict resolution
Considering and prioritizing competing and simultaneous information
control and organization of emotional reactions
Coordinating and adjusting complex behavior
cravings
creativity
decision making
delayed responding
diverse set of cognitive processes, including actively maintaining information in working memory
emotional processing
emotional regulation
error-monitoring
explicit memory
filtering or gating mechanism for information processing
flexibility
focusing and organizing attention
impulse control
inhibitory control of interference
integration of perception with action across time
integrative scanning of all pertinent details
language
mediates negative attitudes
mediates positive attitude
metamemory
modulation of body arousal
motor attention, i.e., enactment of action schemas requires attention directed to events in the
motor or executive sector
narrative expression
new learning
novelty processing
organization and conceptualization of finances
perception of pain possibly in mediating the emotional response behind it
perform tasks that require the guidance of one's actions by visual information, spatial, or
otherwise
personality
planning
problem-solving
process religious experiences
pursue plans to their goal
response conflict
retrieval of information from long-term memory and metacognitive processes
reward and goal-related activity
reward expectations and in the anticipation and processing of outcomes even if the outcome
does not produce any reward
self-awareness
self-initiated movement
set-shifting
short-term memory tasks
simulation, i.e., process of generating internal modes of external reality
social and emotional behavior
social cognition
spatial and conceptual reasoning process
spatial memory
spontaneous speech
stimulus detection and sequencing tasks
sustained attention
temporal ordering of events
updating and maintaining the contents of working memory
verbal expression
verbal fluency
working memory
Poor executive function means that the range of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional functions suffer difficulties which often occur as a result of another disorder or a traumatic brain injury. Individuals with executive dysfunction struggle with planning, problem-solving, organization, impulsivity, time management, or many other.