Antoine Bechara: USC Department of Psychology

For a long time, the prefrontal cortex has been considered a “non-functional” brain area, and understanding its function has lagged behind nearly all other areas. This is no longer true since appreciation of the vital role that this brain region plays in adaptive behaviors, and especially decision-making, is now evident more than ever. I will highlight the recent progress that has been made in this area of research. Decision-making is a term often referred to in the psychological literature as one of the “executive functions”, which play a role in managing (like an executive) other cognitive functions, such as memory, attention, and language. Considerable research efforts have been directed towards differentiating various processes of executive functions, but much of this effort in the past has focused on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPC) sector. I will focus on decision-making and its link to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC), and highlights the role of evolution in shaping the function of this area of the brain.