Prefrontal Cortex

The prefrontal cortex is the front part of your brain, right behind your forehead. It helps manage thinking, emotions and behavior by using executive functions. These are skills you rely on to plan, make decisions, solve problems, stay focused and adjust to new situations.

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is the last part of your brain to finish myelination. This usually happens in your mid-20s. Myelination is when a protective covering (sheath) forms around the brain’s wiring (nerve fibers, also called neuronal axons). This covering helps signals travel faster, so information moves quickly from one part of the brain to another.

The PFC is an important part of what makes you who you are, and it has a big impact on your daily life.

Several conditions can affect this part of your brain, including epilepsy, ADHD, OCD and depression, among others. Damage to it can change the way you interact with the world. A healthcare provider can help diagnose and treat problems with your prefrontal cortex to help you feel better.

What does the prefrontal cortex do?

The PFC guides many of your everyday skills. Some of its main jobs include:

• Attention: Helps you stay focused and ignore distractions
• Decision-making: Helps you think through choices and direct your behavior
• Emotions: Allows you to understand feelings, show empathy and respond to rewards or punishments
• Goal setting: Learns from past experiences to manage your actions instead of acting on impulse
• Self-control: Stops you from reacting automatically and lets you choose better options
• Working memory: Holds information for a short time so you can use it right away

Where is the prefrontal cortex located?

Your prefrontal cortex is above and behind your eyebrows and forehead. It’s in the front part of your brain’s frontal lobe.

What are the parts of the prefrontal cortex

The prefrontal cortex has different sections. Each one has its own job:

• Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC): Planning, problem-solving and working memory and helping you stay focused by filtering out distractions
• Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC): Emotional regulation, making choices and switching between tasks (like changing from washing dishes to drying them) and controlling autonomic functions (like heart rate and blood pressure)
• Medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC): Adjusting your behavior when rules change (like stopping at a yellow light instead of speeding up)
• Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC): Judging experiences as good or bad (like feeling happy when you’re with people you trust)
• Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC): Making decisions and controlling impulses (like resisting the urge to eat a cookie right before dinner), and helping you judge visual cues by linking them to outcomes or rewards

Prefrontal cortex development

Your prefrontal cortex is one of the last parts of your brain to fully mature. Its basic structure forms in childhood. But it keeps changing throughout your teen years and into early adulthood.

During this time, your brain strengthens the connections it uses most. Then, it lets go of the ones it doesn’t need. It also adds insulation (called myelin) to help signals travel faster and more smoothly.

These changes improve judgment, self-control and long-term planning. For most people, the PFC fully develops by the mid-20s. Fine-tuning may take a bit longer.

What are common conditions that affect the prefrontal cortex?

The prefrontal cortex plays a role in many health conditions, like:

• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
• Bipolar disorder
• Brain tumor
• Depression
• Epilepsy
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Parkinson’s disease
• Schizophrenia
• Stroke
• Substance use disorders
• Traumatic brain injury

What happens if your prefrontal cortex is damaged?

Damage to the PFC can have a big impact on how you think, feel and act. It can change your personality, affect your judgment and make it harder to control emotions or behavior.

If you have this type of brain injury, you may struggle with planning, decision-making or adapting when things change. You might also have trouble focusing, remembering things or managing your impulses.

Even though skills like speech and intelligence can stay the same, damage to this area often makes everyday tasks more challenging.

What are the signs or symptoms that something isn’t working right with the prefrontal cortex?

When this part of your brain isn’t working as it should, you might notice:

• Difficulty setting long-term goals
• Impulsiveness
• Loss of motivation
• Mood swings
• Poor judgment
• Trouble staying focused
• Trouble with planning and memory

Tell a healthcare provider if these affect your daily life. They can help find the cause and suggest treatment options that fit your needs.

How to strengthen the prefrontal cortex

Even after your prefrontal cortex fully develops, it can still change and adapt. This is called neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity means your brain can build new pathways and strengthen old ones when you learn, practice or repeat certain activities.

Since the PFC is your brain’s center for decision-making, focus and self-control, it benefits from this process. The more you challenge it, the stronger these skills can become.

You can support neuroplasticity and keep your PFC strong by:

• Learning a new skill
• Managing stress
• Practicing mindfulness or meditation
• Staying physically active