The role of the prefrontal cortex in dynamic filtering

Functional neuroimaging and neuropsychological methods have broadened our understanding of the human prefrontal cortex. Converging evidence suggests that this brain region contributes to executive control of information processing. Both cognitive and neural-based models have attempted to delineate the manner in which the prefrontal cortex mediates executive control. An analysis of these findings and models suggests four prominent aspects of executive control—selecting, maintaining, updating, and rerouting information processing. These four aspects are couched in terms of dynamic filtering theory, which proposes that the prefrontal cortex acts as a selective gating or filtering mechanism that controls information processing.