Cognitive Control and Executive Function | Interview with David Badre | Thinking Tools Podcast 19

Описание: Executive function is a set of mental skills that we humans use to plan, hold information in working memory, and generally get things done. Collectively, these are often referred to as “cognitive control,” and they go a long way in explaining what makes humans unique in the animal kingdom. No other animal can plan in the way we do, thinking decades ahead and making sacrifices now for that far off future.

So how does executive function work? In this episode of the Thinking Tools Podcast, I speak with Dr. David Badre, a cognitive neuroscientist and the author of this 2020 book, On Task: How Our Brain Gets Things Done, (2020, Princeton University Press) which is all about cognitive control.

David Badre is Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences at Brown University, where he is also on the faculty of the Carney Institute for Brain Science. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan. He received his PhD from MIT and did his postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley before joining Brown as faculty in 2008. His laboratory studies the neuroscience of cognitive control and executive function.

❓ When do you find it difficult to exert cognitive control?❓

Chapters:
00:00 Executive function (cognitive control) allows your brain to get things done.
00:25 Dr. David Badre's biography and background in cognitive neuroscience
04:20 Overview of "On Task: How Our Brains Get Things Done" (David's book)
06:45 Executive Function vs Cognitive Control
08:40 How to increase executive function (can we?)
12:35 Is emotional regulation a type of executive function?
14:30 Why is the prefrontal cortex (PFC) well-suited to exerting cognitive control?
17:20 What are the subregions of the prefrontal cortex? How is the PFC organized in terms of function?
20:37 How does the brain follow rules?
27:09 Prefrontal cortex networks: What other brain regions does the PFC work with? Why those?
32:00 Basal ganglia in cognitive control and the role of working memory gates
38:45 How the brain allows us to immediately stop an action
46:27 Motivation and executive function: Why motivation is part of cognitive control
48:48 Disorders of Motivation: akinetic mutism, abulia, and apathy
52:05 The limits of motivation: motivation is not the same as mental efficacy or mental effort
55:12 The Neuroscience of Motivation
58:15 Motivation and Dopamine
01:03:22 Prediction error signaling in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)
01:04:29 The evolution of executive function and cognitive control
01:08:51 Is planning for the future unique to humans?
01:11:58 The most important lesson of "On Task: How Our Brains Get Things Done" book
01:15:25 Neuroscience Book: What is the single most important book about the brain?
01:17:04 How does the human brain work? (elevator pitch answer)
01:18:24 Where to find David online
01:19:36 Thanks so much for listening and watching! Please like and subscribe!

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