Executive Function

Executive function is the air traffic controller in your brain. It helps you plan your homework, remember instructions, and keep you from saying something mean when you are angry. It is the part of you that decides to finish your chores before playing video games. Without this controller, your brain would be like an airport where all the planes try to land at the same time! You can practice making your controller stronger by playing games like Simon Says.

The air traffic controller in your brain. You have impulses. Thousands of them per day. Eat the cake. Say the thing. Hit send. Skip the homework. Scroll for another hour. Executive function is the part of you that stands between the impulse and the action. It does not eliminate the impulse. It creates a pause. And in that pause you can ask: is this what I actually want? Or is this what my biology is requesting? The person with strong executive function is not someone without impulses. They are someone with a longer pause. The marshmallow experiment proved it. The children who waited did not want the marshmallow less. They had a stronger pause button. And that pause button predicted their success for the next forty years. The impulse is the animal. The pause is the human. And the human is trainable.

Executive functions: working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control — the biological substrate of agency. The impulse is the animal. The pause is the human. And the human is trainable.

SOUND: Following a complex beat in a song: the ears demonstrating cognitive flexibility in real time.

SMELL: A clean lemon scent that helps you focus: the nose receiving a signal the prefrontal cortex recognizes.

TASTE: Waiting for a hot cookie to cool down before biting: the tongue practicing inhibitory control.

TOUCH: Keeping your hands still even when you have an itch: the body overriding impulse with intention.

SIGHT: Finding a specific item in a Hidden Pictures book: the eyes executing a search protocol the prefrontal cortex assigned.

BODY: Moving slowly through an obstacle course: the body proving that control is harder and more valuable than speed.

Music: You Don't Know How It Feels by Tom Petty

Music: Elastic Heart by Sia

Part of Attention & Focus — CONSCIOUSNESS — Education Revelation