Summary, Conclusions, and Future Direction

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In keeping with Einstein’s quote used to introduce this volume, an attempt was made to understand EF by trying to simplify and identify its stimulus-based characteristics. EF represents an ambiguous issue. Ambiguous problems cannot be solved unless the stimulus-based properties of that problem are identified and understood. However, after making a comprehensive search to identify these properties of EF, only two stimulus-based control systems were identified. These two systems are the cerebro-cerebellar and the cortical-basal ganglia vertically organized motor systems. The cerebro-cerebellar system operates on the basis of predictive or anticipatory control. The cortical-basal ganglia system functions within the principles of reward-based instrumental learning. These two motor control systems always operate together, in tandem, as parallel processes. It was concluded that during the course of phylogenetic development, these two systems expanded generating a cognitive control system that was required to meet the increasingly complex demands of interactive behavior. The cognitive control system essentially merged anticipatory control with hierarchically organized “rewards” to meet the needs of adaptive behavioral control. This system did not emerge for the purpose of thinking. Instead, cognition evolved from these systems to serve the needs of interactive behavior. An “executive” could not be identified. Instead, the neuroscientific evidence identified a behavioral control system that was characterized as a task-dependent, dynamically changing locus of control, requiring the activation of multiple large scale brain networks. Therefore, this simple problem-solving approach actually banishes the artificial EF concept in favor of a neuropsychologically inspired cognitive control system which relies upon all the stimulus-based properties necessary for motor or “action control.”KeywordsCognitive Control SystemBasic Stimulus PropertiesStimulus-based CharacteristicsCortical-basal GangliaAnticipatory ControlThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.