Professor Trevor Robbins won the Brain Prize in 2014, together with Stanislas Dehaene and Giacomo Rizzolatti, for “their pioneering research on higher brain mechanisms underpinning such complex human functions as literacy, numeracy, motivated behavior, and social cognition, and for their efforts to understand cognitive and behavioral disorders”.

The Brain Prize is an international award that recognizes and celebrates highly original and groundbreaking advances in any area of brain research, from basic neuroscience to applied clinical research. Since it was founded in 2011 and up until 2025, The Brain Prize has been awarded to 49 scientists from 11 countries.

The Prefrontal Cortex: Your Brain’s CEO

Imagine your brain as a large company. Different “departments” handle different tasks—one processes information coming in from your senses, another controls your movements, and yet another stores your memories. All these tasks must be continuously coordinated to achieve your overall goals, from navigating in your neighborhood to succeeding in your school projects.

Every company has an executive office that oversees all its operations, to make sure the business runs in the best possible way. The “executive office” in your brain is found in the frontal lobes, which are located right behind your forehead. Within the frontal lobes lies the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which you can think of as your brain’s chief executive officer or CEO. The PFC is where much of your behavior is coordinated and controlled [1]. The PFC constantly oversees and monitors the activity of other brain areas. Interestingly, your PFC is not fully mature until you are about 25 years old! This is why you may occasionally find it difficult to control your behavior—your brain’s control center is still under construction, learning how to do its job efficiently.

Understanding the PFC is one of the most exciting challenges in brain science today. We know it is connected to chemical messenger systems deep in the brain, which send signals using molecules you may have heard of: dopamine, serotonin, noradrenaline, and acetylcholine. Scientists are not exactly sure how these chemical messengers affect the PFC, but my theory is that they “tune” the PFC to help it perform effectively in changing situations (Figure 1). For example, if you get bored doing a task, acetylcholine might be sent to your PFC to keep your attention focused and help you complete what you started. Even your brain’s CEO sometimes needs help to do a great job!

The PFC Manages Your Thoughts and Actions

Though we do not yet fully understand how the PFC works, we do know it is involved in helping you control your thoughts and actions, through what are called executive functions [1]. Executive functions are the activities of the brain’s CEO that coordinate all the more basic functions of your brain—things like perception (receiving and sorting information from your senses), memory (storing and recalling information), and various types of learning. Executive functions also coordinate more complex brain functions, including planning, arithmetic, reasoning, and understanding language.

The PFC’s goal in coordinating all these diverse functions is to produce the best possible outcome—like achieving the goals you set for yourself. Scientists still debate whether all executive functions are part of one general system, but there is wide agreement that certain executive functions seem to be controlled by specific parts of the PFC (of which there are likely dozens), and that the executive functions control different aspects of behavior.

The Big Three: Working Memory, Cognitive Flexibility, and Inhibition

Now I will tell you about three major executive functions scientists have identified: working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition.

Working Memory: Processing Information in Your Mind

Working memory is the ability to hold information in your mind and use it to complete a task [2]. It is crucial for many daily activities, from speaking and writing to learning new skills and doing mental arithmetic (Figure 2A).

Try this experiment: Read the following number, then immediately close your eyes and try to repeat it backwards without looking: 077365878. Now close your eyes and see how many digits you can recall backwards. This task demonstrates your working memory in action—your brain must keep the number in mind, organize it, and repeat it correctly before it fades away.

Cognitive Flexibility: Changing Your Mind

Cognitive flexibility is the ability to change your mind and adapt [3]. Imagine playing a simple computer game where you need to click the yellow shape when it appears on the screen. After a few minutes, the rules suddenly change—now you must click a different shape (say, a triangle) of any color. The faster you switch from the old rule (yellow shape) to the new rule (triangle) and succeed at the game, the better your cognitive flexibility.

Scientists think there are at least two types of cognitive flexibility. Strategic flexibility helps you explore new environments and figure out the best way to navigate new surroundings. Shifting flexibility is important for things like multitasking—switching quickly from one activity to another (Figure 2B). When you keep alternating between completing math homework and reading texts from a friend, for example, you are using your shifting flexibility.

When cognitive flexibility is high, people are very adaptable—they can quickly adjust to new instructions and environments. When it is not working well, it can contribute to conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), where people get stuck in repetitive patterns and cannot “refresh” their minds to behave in ways that are better suited to their current environment [3]. For example, a student who always needs their desk arranged in a perfect order before starting work might feel unable to focus when they move to a new classroom where the tables are arranged differently. Even though the new setup works fine, their brain struggles to adjust to the change.

Inhibition: Pressing the Brakes

Inhibition is the ability to stop yourself from doing or saying something before you have thought it through [4, 5]. It is like having a brake pedal for your behavior. The better your inhibition, the stronger your self-control.

Inhibition stops you from blurting out wrong answers in class, prevents you from stepping into traffic when you are crossing the street, and helps you control impulsive behaviors such as eating too many sweets (Figure 2C). But inhibition does more than control actions—it also helps you inhibit unwanted thoughts, emotions, and memories.

Chocolate or Apple? Two Types of Inhibition

Of the three executive functions we described, inhibition is especially important for making good decision on a daily basis. Imagine you decide to improve your diet by eating less chocolate and more fruit. You walk into the kitchen and see a delicious chocolate cake on the counter, next to a fresh apple. You know the apple is the healthier choice, but that chocolate cake looks amazing. What do you do—follow your goal and grab the apple, or give in to temptation?

If you resist your impulse for chocolate and reach for the apple instead, you have used immediate inhibition. This type of inhibition is controlled by a region, on its lateral (side) surface, toward the middle of your PFC. If, knowing there is chocolate cake in the kitchen, you decide not to go into the kitchen at all, you have practiced strategic inhibition [6]. This type of inhibition is controlled by a region toward the front of your PFC.

The fact that strategic inhibition is controlled by a brain area located more toward the front of the brain suggests the brain might have a hierarchy, or ranking, of operations—strategic inhibition is “higher” in the ranking than immediate inhibition, meaning it involves more complex thinking and planning ahead, rather than just reacting in the moment.

Scientists think that other executive functions, including working memory and cognitive flexibility, might also have a hierarchy with immediate and strategic levels, but that still needs to be confirmed.

Impulsivity and Compulsivity: When Executive Functions Act Up

Currently, I am very interested in two major conditions where executive functions malfunction: impulsivity and compulsivity [7]. Impulsivity is about responding too soon or recklessly. That could be anything from shouting at someone who upset you to being unable to stop eating chocolate cake. Compulsivity is about getting “stuck” doing specific behaviors without being able to change them. This could mean having repeating thoughts running in “loops” inside your head, fixating on a specific goal even though it is no longer important, or performing actions in a set, automatic way, like washing your hands over and over again when they are already clean. Compulsivity plays an important role in addiction and OCD [8].

In my lab, we are currently studying the PFC and other brain areas and behavioral mechanisms involved in controlling compulsivity and impulsivity. This research could help scientists and doctors find treatments for disorders like OCD.

Practical Tips for Training your Brain’s CEO

Another research direction my colleagues and I are working on is finding ways to train and improve executive functions (Figure 3). Research on cognitive flexibility is still in the early stages, so we do not yet have suggestions for improving that executive function. But when it comes to improving inhibition and reducing impulsivity, here are a few tips I can share:

• Pause: before you do or say something, especially when you feel a need to respond quickly, choose to pause.

• Reflect: take a moment to ask yourself, "Is this the right thing to do?”.

• Monitor your actions: after you do something, think back and ask yourself, “Did I do the right thing there?”. This monitoring helps you adjust your future strategies.

• Bite your lip: if you are feeling irritated or emotional, maybe it is best to calm down before doing or saying anything. Pay attention to your warning signals and try to keep calm.

• Be strategic: think ahead about situations that might trigger impulsive behavior and plan ways to avoid them (like not going into the kitchen when you are trying to avoid unhealthy snacks).

Glossary

Frontal Lobes: ↑ The large areas at the front of the brain that help you plan, decide, and control your actions.

Prefrontal Cortex: ↑ The very front part of the frontal lobes—your brain’s “CEO”—that helps you stay focused, organized, and in control.

Executive Functions: ↑ Mental skills performed mainly by the prefrontal cortex, that help you plan, focus your attention, remember instructions, and manage several things at once to reach your goals.

Working Memory: ↑ The ability to hold and use information in your mind—like doing math in your head or remembering directions.

Cognitive Flexibility: ↑ The skill of changing your thinking or behavior when the rules or situation change—like switching strategies in a game.

Inhibition: ↑ The ability to stop yourself from doing or saying something before you act—your brain’s “brake pedal”.

Impulsivity: ↑ Responding too soon or recklessly; acting without thinking things through or being unable to resist immediate temptations.

Compulsivity: ↑ Getting stuck in repetitive patterns of behavior and having difficulty changing even when behaviors are no longer helpful.

Conflict of Interest

The author(s) declared that this work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Or Raphael for conducting the interview that served as the basis for this paper, and for co-authoring the paper, Iris Gat for providing the figures, and Susan Debad for copyediting the manuscript. I also wish to thank Brais for reviewing this manuscript. Brais loves participating in math competitions, building wooden kits, and solving puzzles. He also plays violin and piano and volunteers as a math peer tutor.

Additional Resources

• The Brain Prize 2014: Higher Brain Functions

AI Tool Statement

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References

[1] ↑ Friedman, N. P., and Robbins, T. W. 2022. The role of prefrontal cortex in cognitive control and executive function. Neuropsychopharmacology 47:72–89. doi: 10.1038/s41386-021-01132-0

[2] ↑ Baddeley, A. 2010. Working memory. Curr. Biol. 20:R136–40. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.12.014

[3] ↑ Robbins, T. W. 2022. Cognitive flexibility, OCD and the brain. Brain 145:814–5. doi: 10.1093/brain/awac046

[4] ↑ Aron, A. R., Robbins, T. W., and Poldrack, R. A. 2004. Inhibition and the right inferior frontal cortex. Trends Cogn. Sci. 8:170–7. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2004.02.010

[5] ↑ Bari, A., and Robbins, T. W. 2013. Inhibition and impulsivity: behavioral and neural basis of response control. Prog. Neurobiol. 108:44–79. doi: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2013.06.005

[6] ↑ Crockett, M. J., Braams, B. R., Clark, L., Tobler, P. N., Robbins, T. W., and Kalenscher, T. 2013. Restricting temptations: neural mechanisms of precommitment. Neuron. 79:391–401. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.05.028

[7] ↑ Robbins, T. W., Gillan, C. M., Smith, D. G., de Wit, S., and Ersche, K. D. 2012. Neurocognitive endophenotypes of impulsivity and compulsivity: towards dimensional psychiatry. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 13:674–86. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2011.11.009

[8] ↑ Robbins, T. W., Banca, P., and Belin, D. (2024). From compulsivity to compulsion: the neural basis of compulsive disorders. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 25:313–33. doi: 10.1038/s41583-024-00807-z