Executive functions and their disorders

Author: Rebecca Elliott

Source: British Medical Bulletin, Volume 65, Supplement 1, March 2003 , pp. 49-59(11)

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Abstract:

The term executive function defines complex cognitive processing requiring the co-ordination of several subprocesses to achieve a particular goal. Neuropsychological evidence suggests that executive processing is intimately connected with the intact function of the frontal cortices. Executive dysfunction has been associated with a range of disorders, and is generally attributed to structural or functional frontal pathology. Neuroimaging, with PET and fMRI, has confirmed the relationship; however, attempts to link specific aspects of executive functioning to discrete prefrontal foci have been inconclusive. Instead, the emerging view suggests that executive function is mediated by dynamic and flexible networks, that can be characterised using functional integration and effective connectivity analyses. This view is compatible with the clinical presentation of executive dysfunction associated with a range of pathologies, and also with evidence that recovery of executive function can occur after traumatic brain injury, perhaps due to functional reorganisation within executive networks.

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Neuroscience and Psychiatry Unit, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

Publication date: 2003-03-01

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British Medical Bulletin is a multidisciplinary publication, which comprises high quality reviews aimed at generalist physicians, junior doctors and medical students in both developed and developing countries.