Decision Making and Prefrontal Executive Function

Abstract

Decision making—the selection of one course of action from among many—critically involves the frontal lobes. Here, we propose a theory of the functional architecture of the human frontal lobes that details the cognitive and motivational processes underlying decision making. We argue for a fractionation of both lateral and medial prefrontal cortices into hierarchical, rostrocaudally arranged control processes, permitting action selection to be guided by task-related information arising across multiple contexts and episodes, and in accordance with likely investment and outcome over both the short and long term. We suggest that the temporal dimension of the decision process may be the key to understanding the functional organization of the frontal lobes, with caudal frontal regions processing the cognitive and motivational demands of immediate action selection, and more rostral frontal cortex responsible for maintaining a task set and its associated value across an extended behavioral episode. Finally, we discuss how cognitive and motivational information might be integrated into a central executive system in the service of decision making.