prefrontal cortex

Definition of prefrontal cortex

: the gray matter of the anterior part of the frontal lobe that is highly developed in humans and plays a role in the regulation of complex cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning

Examples of prefrontal cortex in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Researchers have determined the areas of the human brain responsible for our aversion to robots: the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. — Daisy Hernandez, Popular Mechanics, "The Scientific Reason Some of Us Find Robots Creepy As Hell," 17 July 2019 While the rats played, the researchers recorded their brain activity from individual neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex, a region associated with rules and social proximity. — Los Angeles Times, "Scientists taught these adorable rats to play hide and seek," 13 Sep. 2019 When people were experiencing that ASMR tingling, certain areas of the brain were more active: most notably the medial prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens. — Craig Richard, BostonGlobe.com, "The blissful and bizarre world of ASMR," 16 Aug. 2019 The default network consists of a group of interconnected brain regions, including the medial prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex, the angular gyrus and the hippocampus. — Knvul Sheikh, Scientific American, "Creative Types Reserve a Special Corner of the Brain for Dreaming Big," 22 May 2019 That timeline could be of use not just to episodic memory in the hippocampus, but to working memory in the prefrontal cortex and conditioning responses in the striatum. — Jordana Cepelewicz, WIRED, "How the Brain Keeps Its Memories in the Right Order," 17 Feb. 2019 The frontal lobe and prefrontal cortex, the origin of all that adult, higher-order thinking, are the final parts of the brain to mature and connect. — Jessica Lahey, Washington Post, "Fewer teens are drinking. But a group of pediatricians is begging parents to be vigilant.," 24 June 2019 In his case, the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, prefrontal cortex and visual cortex as well as the motor, pre-motor and somatosensory regions. — Larry Greenemeier, Scientific American, "Marvel Comics Gets Inside the Heads of the Avengers," 21 Aug. 2014 Picariello reminds frustrated parents that organizational skills come from the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which isn’t fully mature until early adulthood. — Jon Gorey, BostonGlobe.com, "Is your kids’ clutter driving you crazy? These six tips can help.," 25 July 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'prefrontal cortex.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about prefrontal cortex

Dictionary Entries near prefrontal cortex

prefrontal cortex

Statistics for prefrontal cortex

Last Updated

25 Oct 2019

Time Traveler for prefrontal cortex

The first known use of prefrontal cortex was in 1900

See more words from the same year

Keep scrolling for more

WORD OF THE DAY

fortitude

strength of mind

Test Your Vocabulary

Pass the Little Ribbons: A Pasta Word Quiz

Match the pasta to its meaning in English: Rotelle

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.