The brain’s executive control functions (sometimes just called executive functions) are a set of higher-level cognitive skills possessed by humans (and some animals) related to deliberative, goal-oriented behaviors, such as the following:

• attention
• working memory
• impulse control
• emotional regulation
• reasoning
• judgment
• problem solving
• creativity
• self-awareness
• performance monitoring

By providing the ability to manage and coordinate behaviors — to focus on a specific task, filter out distractions, and switch gears — executive control functions are a bit like an air traffic control system in one’s brain.

No single part of the brain is responsible for executive functions, but there is strong evidence that the frontal lobe and neocortex (the newest part of the brain, evolutionarily speaking) are primarily significant. It is theorized that animals without a neocortex are unlikely to possess executive functions, and that all animals with a neocortex (meaning, all mammals) possess at least a degree of proficiency with respect to executive functions.

Executive functions are most evident in humans, whose brains are 80% neocortex. They have also been shown to exist in primates such as chimpanzees, cetaceans (dolphins and whales), and elephants. Pets like dogs and cats don’t show evidence of possessing executive functions, and pet owners claiming otherwise are often anthropomorphizing.

Executive functions are energy intensive brain processes; they are the brain’s “heavy lifting” — particularly when compared to the habit behaviors of the basal ganglia, discussed in detail in an earlier post.