What is: Executive Function? (Part 3)

Inhibitory Control

Read Part 1: Working Memory
Read Part 2: Cognitive Flexibility

This month I am writing about a set of skills known as executive function. Executive function is a collection of brain processes that could be called the brain’s “management team.” These skills are: working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control. These three things greatly affect how a person interacts with the world and goes about their day-to-day life.

Poor executive function is a common sign of ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyscalcula, bipolar disorder, and dementia. People going through periods of anxiety and depression also show a temporary reduction in their executive functioning ability.

This week I’m talking about inhibitory control. You can find Part 1: Working Memory, and Part 2: Cognitive Flexibility, by clicking on the links above.

Inhibitory Control

The third skill of the brain’s core management team is inhibitory control. Inhibitory control refers to a person’s ability to control the natural processes of attention, thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. Inhibitory control is what allows us to pause and think before reacting, leaving space to consider consequences, expectations, values, or pros and cons, and adjusting our natural knee-jerk reaction to something more appropriate, if needed.

You have probably heard before that alcohol “lowers your inhibitions.” This means that alcohol can interfere with the brain’s ability to pause before acting, which causes the spontaneous, unfiltered, or risky behavior of someone who is drunk.

Like all of the executive functioning skills, inhibitory control is learned and developed over time, which is why we associate distractibility, poor emotional control (aka tantrums), bluntness, and a poor awareness of danger and safety with very young children. This is also why an adult who has poor inhibitory control—either temporarily due to substances like alcohol, or permanently due to a neurological disability—seems to act “childish.”

Inhibitory control is a common struggle for individuals with ADHD. Difficulty ignoring distractions, speaking out of turn, fidgeting, or being spontaneous without thinking through the logistics first, are all stereotypical examples of ADHD behaviour.

Other signs of inhibitory control difficulties are:

• Becoming easily frustrated
• Being quick to quit activities that are challenging
• Seeming overly emotional
• Having “a bad temper”
• Constantly talking
• Interrupting others
• Spontaneity
• An inability to relax, slow down, or calm down

A person who struggles with inhibitory control daily may have ADHD, bipolar disorder, or another disorder that affects executive function.

Executive function—the combination of working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control—is an important part of daily life. It is a learned skill that develops through childhood and into young adulthood. For this reason, most of us, whether or not we have heard the term “executive function” before, unconsciously associate healthy, developed executive functioning skills with maturity.

Is it any wonder that adults with autism, ADHD, or other neurological differences struggle to cope and thrive while living on their own, going to university, or navigating the workplace? What many of us assume is a personality or attitude problem, is actually an invisible brain disorder. Neurodivergent adults require support to function at a level that their neurotypical peers consider to be “normal.”

Now that I’ve spent three weeks covering what executive function is, I want to spend the next two weeks talking about how to develop executive functioning skills in your children, and how to support an adult (perhaps yourself!) who has executive functioning difficulties.

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