The Prefrontal Cortex

Abstract The prefrontal cortex (PFC) occupies a central position in human cognition. Taken as one single entity, it plays a critical role in the elaboration and control of voluntary, willed, goal-directed behavior. As such, it exerts a “top-down” activatory and inhibitory cognitive and behavioral control over the other brain regions. Beyond its role as a “controller,” the PFC also makes essential contributions to the human creative mind, social cognition, and valuation processing. These functions depend on the cooperation of different prefrontal subregions, themselves related to different but interconnected brain networks. Altogether, the anatomical and functional organization of the PFC allows humans, when behaving in situations requiring non-automatic responses, to make decisions based on mental deliberation, taking into account not only the immediate sensory information but also long-term goals, beliefs, moral values, past experiences, and the possible future consequences of their actions.