Origins of Executive Functions

Abstract

The behavioral and cognitive consequences of frontal lobe damage were initially described during the nineteenth century. During the twentieth century, the term “frontal” or “prefrontal” syndrome was initially used; the name “executive function” is only found since the late twentieth century. A long discussion has existed about the unitarity or diversity of executive function, but a major distinction between metacognitive and emotional/motivational executive functions could be established; these two basic types of executive functions are associated with the dorsolateral and mesial–orbital prefrontal cortex activity. Inner speech depends on Broca’s area and associated brain network activity, which is closely related to grammar and executive functions. It has been proposed that the size of the prefrontal cortex cannot completely account for the human executive functions; some other factors should be considered, such as increased connectivity. Archeological analyses have discovered only some – if any– evidence of metacognitive executive functions in prehistorical man; consequently, metacognitive abilities represent a relatively new human intellectual acquisition, not obviously dependent on recent biological changes. Language as a mediator, used not only to conceptualize the immediate experience but also for the transmission of knowledge, has been proposed as the major cultural instrument for metacognition. There is no question that some other cultural mediators have also contributed to the development of metacognitive executive abilities.