Each month our editorial team sifts through hundreds of papers and curates notable findings—for practitioners and informed readers who want to stay current with the evidence. Subscribe to the monthly Research Digest for expert analysis and concise summaries of key papers.
This review looks at studies in humans and animals that link anxiety and stress with poorer cognitive flexibility — the ability to change strategies when rules or goals change. It describes evidence that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is central to flexible behavior, that anxiety or PFC disruptions are associated with…
This article explains that much of everyday behavior comes from habits, which are triggered by cues and run automatically, while goal-directed actions are based on expected outcomes and are more flexible. Brain studies show these two strategies use different but connected circuits: a prefrontal–dorsomedial striatum loop for goal-directed control and…
