Chunk #21 — Neurocognitive and Brain Functional Response Systems and Their Operational Relationships to the Undercontrol/Disinhibition Developmental Pathway
The neural underpinnings of control and (dis)inhibition involve regions of prefrontal cortex and their extensive circuitries including regions of thalamus, basal ganglia and limbic regions. At least two psychological systems and their likely neural implementation need to be considered (Eisenberg et al., 1997; Nigg, 2000). The systems are in dynamic tension and modulate each other throughout development. One is an effortful control system (Rothbart & Bates, 1998). Effortful control refers to the control of behavior and attention in the service of goals that are distal in time and represented in memory or working memory rather than by immediate incentives and cues. An example would be a child's ignoring a whispering classmate in order to earn some privilege later in the hour. Although executive functioning is a broader construct that encompasses other component abilities, this activity is subsumable in the EF domain. Effortful control involves the ability to regulate behavior to fit contextual demands and maintain a goal set (Miyake et al., 2000, Pennington & Ozonoff, 1996). Effortful control likely reflects activation in prefrontal cortical regions (particularly lateral prefrontal) corresponding with
