The social welfare provided by cooperation depends on the enforcement of social norms. Determining blameworthiness and assigning a deserved punishment are two cognitive cornerstones of norm enforcement. Although prior work has implicated the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in norm-based judgments, the relative contribution of this region to blameworthiness and punishment decisions remain...

The dorsomedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (dmPFC and dlPFC) together support cognitive control, with dmPFC responsible for monitoring performance and dlPFC responsible for adjusting behavior. The dlPFC contains a topographic organization that reflects complexity of control demands, with more anterior regions guiding increasingly abstract processing. Recent evidence for a similar grad...

Research indicates that dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is important for pursuing goals, and areas of DLPFC are differentially involved in approach and avoidance motivation. Given the complexity of the processes involved in goal pursuit, DLPFC is likely part of a network that includes orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), cingulate, amygdala, and basal ganglia. This hypothesis was tested with rega...

The cognitive control of action requires both the suppression of automatic responses to sudden stimuli and the generation of behavior specified by abstract instructions. Though patient, functional imaging and neurophysiological studies have implicated the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in these abilities, the mechanism by which the dlPFC exerts this control remains unknown. Here we exam...

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) possesses cortico-cortical connections with the parietal and premotor cortices that are involved in visuomotor control of actions. Studies have shown that the DLPFC, especially the caudal part, has a crucial role in cognitive control of motor behavior, and that it uses spatial information in conjunction with information such as object identity, behavio...