Brain's 'Executive' Region Can Block Creative Problem-Solving, Study Shows

In a finding that quietly upends one of neuroscience's most cherished assumptions, researchers at Emory University have discovered that the prefrontal cortex — long revered as the brain's architect of flexible thought — can, paradoxically, trap the mind in its own habits. By silencing this executive region in mice, scientists watched animals abandon inefficient strategies nearly twice as fast, suggesting that the very machinery we rely on for rational control sometimes holds the deeper self in place. The work, published in Science Advances, opens a door toward rethinking how we treat condition