Cognitive control:

a class of processes that allow information processing and behavior to vary adaptively from moment to
moment depending on current goals.
Mental operations : goal or context representation and maintenance, attention allocation and stimulus-
response mapping.
A wide range of processes: attention, memory language comprehension and emotional processing.
Impairment linked to schizophrenia and other neurodevelopment disorders.
Brain region:
o prefrontal cortex has a key role: sustained attention, inhibition, emotional regulation,
o DLPFC activated overcome response tendencies. Lateral prefrontal cortex is involved in
sustained control while medial and lateral frontal regions work in concert to adjust control
dynamically according to changing task demands, reflected by level of conflict.
Control conflict loop theory: during dynamic control, anterior cingulate cortex detects conflict and
signals
Behavioral, ERP, fMRI and computational modeling
Episodic Long-Term Memory:
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is thought to play a critical role in the implementation of working memory
(WM) control processes that promote successful LTM encoding and retrieval.
Ventrolateral PFC (VLPFC) is critical for attending to relevant items ("item-specific" WM) during
memory encoding, whereas the dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) is critical for building relationships
between these items ("relational" WM). We propose that it is the latter mechanism that is
disproportionately impaired in schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia:
Strengthen the effectiveness of cognitive endophenotypes for investigating the genetics of
schizophrenia by addressing these psychometric confounds and linking them to the function of discrete
neural systems.
Measures of cognitive functioning will include behavioral testing, neuroimaging (fMRI), as well as
ERP.
The relationship between pharmacology and cognition.
How: functional neuroimaging and electrophysiology to evaluate the effects of neuropharmacological
agents on the neural basis of cognition. Test modafinil, a pro-catecholaminergic agent, on cognitive
control and frontal cortex activity in healthy adult and schizophrenic patients.
Catecholamines, including dopamine and norepinephrine, are the principal neurotransmitters that
mediate a variety of the central nervous system functions, such as motor control, cognition, emotion,
memory processing, and endocrine modulation.
Classic cognitive theory conceptualizes executive functions as involving multiple specific domains, including
initiation, inhibition, working memory, flexibility, planning, and vigilance. Lesion and neuroimaging
experiments over the past two decades have suggested that both common and unique processes contribute to
executive functions during higher cognition. It has been suggested that a superordinate fronto-cingulo-parietal
network supporting cognitive control may also underlie a range of distinct executive functions. To test this
hypothesis in the largest sample to date, we used quantitative meta-analytic methods to analyze 193 functional
neuroimaging studies of 2,832 healthy individuals, ages 18-60, in which performance on executive function
measures was contrasted with an active control condition. A common pattern of activation was observed in
the prefrontal, dorsal anterior cingulate, and parietal cortices across executive function domains, supporting
the idea that executive functions are supported by a superordinate cognitive control network. However,
domain-specific analyses showed some variation in the recruitment of anterior prefrontal cortex, anterior and
midcingulate regions, and unique subcortical regions such as the basal ganglia and cerebellum. These results
are consistent with the existence of a superordinate cognitive control network in the brain, involving
dorsolateral prefrontal, anterior cingulate, and parietal cortices, that supports a broad range of executive
functions.