Frontal Lobe · Structure
Prefrontal Cortex
The brain's chief executive.
The prefrontal cortex sits at the very front of the frontal lobe and handles the hardest thinking you do: weighing options, resisting temptation, and imagining consequences that haven't happened yet. It is also the slowest part of the brain to finish developing.
What it does
- Planning several steps ahead
- Impulse control and delaying reward
- Holding information in working memory
- Switching flexibly between tasks
In the real world
The marshmallow test, revisited
Modern imaging studies show that children who wait for a second treat recruit more prefrontal activity. Schools now teach explicit self-regulation strategies instead of assuming willpower is fixed.