ReviewNature reviews. Neuroscience2017
Managing competing goals - a key role for the frontopolar cortex.
Review in Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 139 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
139 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Neural correlates of Sudoku play: a systematic review of brain imaging studies.Frontiers in neuroimaging · 2026Pooled it
- Cognition, body, and mind: A three-in-one coordinate-based fMRI meta-analysis on cognitive, physical, and meditative trainings.Human brain mapping · 2023Pooled it
- Can dyadic rope-skipping enhance cooperative behavior in female university students with depressive symptoms? Evidence from behavioral and fNIRS hyperscanning data.BMC psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Noninvasive Brain Stimulation over the Frontopolar Cortex Promotes Willingness to Exert Cognitive Effort in a Foraging-Like Sequential Choice Task.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Trial
- Auricular Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation Specifically Enhances Working Memory Gate Closing Mechanism: A System Neurophysiological Study.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Trial
- Placebo aiTBS attenuates suicidal ideation and frontopolar cortical perfusion in major depression.Translational psychiatry · 2019Trial
- What is common to memory retrieval and relational reasoning? Testing neural overlap in anterior lateral prefrontal cortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- A rostral prefrontal mediolateral gradient predicts creativity in frontotemporal dementia.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Brain activity, disruption and connectivity comparisons identify origins of human metacognition in other primates.Nature human behaviour · 2026Article
- Reversed functional gradient in primate prefrontal cortex: Posterior dominance and frontopolar task-related deactivation.Science advances · 2026Article
- Article
- Competing value signals impair reward-learning via dopaminergic mechanisms and increase exploration.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Age-Related Differences in Neural Networks for Error Detection and Inhibitory Control: A LORETA-Based Comparative Study.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Spatiotemporal Decoding of Explore-Exploit Decisions in the Human Brain.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Exploration vs. Exploitation in a Novel Complex Card Matching Task: Evidence from Pupillometry.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Article
- Prefrontal modulation of striatal engagement: a hierarchical framework for goal-directed behavior.Communications biology · 2026Review
- Childhood trauma and impulsivity in children with first-episode depression: mediation by left frontopolar thickness.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Thalamocortical regulation of prefrontal stability enables abstract rule generalization.Science advances · 2026Article
- Semantic cues modulate brain activity in different Dunhuang narrative murals appreciation: an fNIRS study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
79 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Humans are set apart from other animals by many elements of advanced cognition and behaviour, including language, judgement and reasoning. What is special about the human brain that gives rise to these abilities? Could the foremost part of the prefrontal cortex (the frontopolar cortex), which has become considerably enlarged in humans during evolution compared with other animals, be important in this regard, especially as, in primates, it contains a unique cytoarchitectural field, area 10? The first studies of the function of the frontopolar cortex in monkeys have now provided critical new insights about its precise role in monitoring the significance of current and alternative goals. In human evolution, the frontopolar cortex may have acquired a further role in enabling the monitoring of the significance of multiple goals in parallel, as well as switching between them. Here, we argue that many other forms of uniquely human behaviour may benefit from this cognitive ability mediated by the frontopolar cortex.
Indexed as
Identifiers
28951610What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.