Group · one in each half of the brain
Prefrontal cortex
Also called PFC
The front-most part of your brain, where you plan, focus and keep yourself in check.
The prefrontal cortex is the front part of the frontal lobe, in front of the areas that control movement. It handles what scientists call executive functions: planning, focusing, holding information in mind, switching between tasks and resisting temptation. It lets you act on goals instead of just reacting to whatever is in front of you.
Where it is
At the very front of the brain, just behind your forehead and above your eyes, making up much of the frontal lobe.
What it does
Working memory
It holds information in mind for a few seconds while you use it, like a phone number you are about to dial.
Planning ahead
It breaks big goals into steps and keeps you on track to reach them.
Self-control
It helps you pause, resist temptation and choose the long-term reward over the quick one.
Flexible thinking
When a plan stops working, it helps you switch to a new approach.
Social judgment
It helps you read social situations and adjust how you behave.
Think of it as an orchestra conductor: it does not play any instrument itself, but it tells the rest of the brain when to come in, when to stay quiet and how to keep time.
Inside the prefrontal cortex
- Superior frontal gyrusThe top ridge of the frontal lobe: a hub for self-control, focus and starting movement.
- Dorsolateral prefrontal cortexYour brain's mental whiteboard: holding, juggling and using information in the moment.
- Caudal middle frontal gyrusWhere you aim your eyes and ready your hands: home of the frontal eye field.
- Frontal poleThe very tip of your brain: juggling goals and thinking about your own thinking.
Works with
- Mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamusThis thalamic nucleus is tightly wired to it, with signals running in both directions.
- DopamineJust the right amount of dopamine helps it focus and hold information in mind; too little or too much both hurt performance.
- Caudate nucleusLoops through the caudate help it choose, start and stop actions and thoughts.
- AmygdalaIt can calm the amygdala, helping you manage fear and strong emotions.
- Parietal lobeTogether with the parietal lobe it forms a control network that directs attention.
- HippocampusIt works with the hippocampus to store memories and later search through them.
When it goes wrong
ADHD
ADHD is linked to differences in how prefrontal networks develop and use the chemical messengers dopamine and noradrenaline. Common ADHD medicines work partly by boosting these chemicals.
Injury and disease
Damage can leave a person disorganized, impulsive or unmotivated, while memory and intelligence scores may still look normal.
The lobotomy era
In the mid-1900s, surgeons cut connections to the prefrontal cortex in an operation called lobotomy to treat mental illness. It often left people dull and passive, and it is now seen as a dark chapter in medicine.
For learning only, not medical advice. If you have a health concern, talk to a doctor.
Surprising facts
- The Portuguese doctor who pioneered lobotomy, Egas Moniz, won a Nobel Prize for it in 1949, a prize that is still controversial.
- It keeps maturing into your twenties. The fatty insulation on its wires, called myelin, keeps building up long after childhood.
- Strong stress can temporarily weaken the prefrontal cortex, making it harder to hold information in mind. That is part of why it is so hard to think clearly in a panic.
Where the name comes from
From Latin: "pre" means in front of, and "frontal" comes from "frons", the forehead. So it is the part at the very front of the frontal lobe.
Quick quiz
3 questions. Your answers are saved and come back in your daily review.
Which of these is a job of the prefrontal cortex?
Show the answer
Working memory. It holds information in mind for a few seconds while you use it, like a phone number you are about to dial.
Working memory. It holds information in mind for a few seconds while you use it, like a phone number you are about to dial.
The prefrontal cortex is part of which larger structure?
Show the answer
Frontal lobe. It belongs to the frontal lobe.
Frontal lobe. It belongs to the frontal lobe.
Which part fits this description? "Like an orchestra conductor: it does not play any instrument itself, but it tells the rest of the brain when to come in, when to stay quiet and how to keep time."
Show the answer
Prefrontal cortex. It is the prefrontal cortex. The front-most part of your brain, where you plan, focus and keep yourself in check.
Prefrontal cortex. It is the prefrontal cortex. The front-most part of your brain, where you plan, focus and keep yourself in check.
These parts now come back in your daily review, just before you would forget them.
Practice these parts in 3DSources
- Neuroanatomy, Prefrontal Cortex, StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf
- 12.2 Neural Mechanisms and Circuitry of the Stress Response, OpenStax, Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience
- Professor Egas Moniz - The Portuguese Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa
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