Definition and research guide
This page combines a MeSH definition, publication statistics and selected research abstracts. It is a starting point for reading the literature, not a medical textbook or a systematic evidence review.
Content available: 4 complete abstracts (787 words), 10 references. Full article text is not stored or reproduced here; follow the PMID, DOI or PMC links to read the original sources and their access terms.
Definition
The upper surfaces of the prefrontal cortex comprising the rostral parts of the superior frontal gyrus and the middle frontal gyrus. It is involved in executive function.
Definition: NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) scope note (Public domain (U.S. National Library of Medicine); attribution requested). View the MeSH record.
Also known as: Cortex, Dorsolateral Prefrontal; Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortices; Prefrontal Cortex, Dorsolateral; DLPFC; Brodmann Area 9; Area 9, Brodmann; Brodmann's Area 9; Area 9, Brodmann's.
Where it fits in the MeSH classification
- Broader topics
- Prefrontal Cortex
Related concepts
- Executive Function
Research landscape
PubMed indexes 1,170 records tagged with the MeSH heading “Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex” (counts retrieved 2026-10-29). 1,170 of them (100.0%) were published from 2020 onward, and the busiest period so far is 2020 onward with 1,170 records.
Reviews account for 74 records (6.3%) and meta-analyses for 38. Randomized controlled trials number 313 (26.8%) as a share of all records on the topic. Randomized trials make up a comparatively large share of this literature, which means many treatment questions have been tested directly.
Show the data
| Period | Records |
|---|---|
| through 1999 | 0 |
| 2000-2009 | 0 |
| 2010-2019 | 4 |
| 2020 onward | 1,170 |
Publication-type chart data
| Type | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 74 | 6.3% |
| Meta-analyses | 38 | 3.2% |
| Randomized controlled trials | 313 | 26.8% |
Method: PubMed query "Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex"[MeSH Terms] with publication-type and date filters, retrieved 2026-10-29.
Reading the evidence in neuroscience
Neuroscience draws on tools with different strengths: cellular and animal work can manipulate circuits directly, while human imaging and electrophysiology observe the living brain at lower resolution. Small imaging studies are prone to false positives, and findings in animals do not always carry over to people. Clinical neurology and psychiatry rely on trials and cohort studies whose outcomes are often symptom scales. Check the species, the sample size, how the outcome was measured and whether results were replicated.
Evidence from open-access studies
These open-access studies come from PubMed’s best-match results for this heading (papers whose main topic it is), ranked here by citation count, with one recent addition. Each abstract is reproduced in full under its recorded open licence so that you can read the authors’ own words. They illustrate the literature; they are not a systematic summary of it. Citation counts measure attention, not reliability or clinical benefit.
Mindfulness training preserves sustained attention and resting state anticorrelation between default-mode network and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex: A randomized controlled trial [1]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Mindfulness training can enhance cognitive control, but the neural mechanisms underlying such enhancement in children are unknown.
- Closing excerpt
- Administered as a part of sixth graders' school schedule, this RCT supports the beneficial effects of school-based mindfulness training on cognitive control.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (187 words)
Mindfulness training can enhance cognitive control, but the neural mechanisms underlying such enhancement in children are unknown. Here, we conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with sixth graders (mean age 11.76 years) to examine the impact of 8 weeks of school-based mindfulness training, relative to coding training as an active control, on sustained attention and associated resting-state functional brain connectivity. At baseline, better performance on a sustained-attention task correlated with greater anticorrelation between the default mode network (DMN) and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a key node of the central executive network. Following the interventions, children in the mindfulness group preserved their sustained-attention performance (i.e., fewer lapses of attention) and preserved DMN-DLPFC anticorrelation compared to children in the active control group, who exhibited declines in both sustained attention and DMN-DLPFC anticorrelation. Further, change in sustained-attention performance correlated with change in DMN-DLPFC anticorrelation only within the mindfulness group. These findings provide the first causal link between mindfulness training and both sustained attention and associated neural plasticity. Administered as a part of sixth graders' school schedule, this RCT supports the beneficial effects of school-based mindfulness training on cognitive control.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 32969562 · DOI · PMC7670646
Causal role of lateral prefrontal cortex in mental effort and fatigue [2]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is well-known for its role in exerting mental work, however the contribution of DLPFC for deciding whether or not to engage in effort remains unknown.
- Closing excerpt
- Together, our findings indicate that in effort-based decisions DLPFC represents the capacity to exert mental effort and the updating of this information with enduring time-on-task, informing theoretical accounts on the role of DLPFC in the motivation to exert mental effort and the fatigue arising from it.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (175 words)
Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is well-known for its role in exerting mental work, however the contribution of DLPFC for deciding whether or not to engage in effort remains unknown. Here, we assessed the causal role of DLPFC in effort-based decision making. We disrupted functioning of DLPFC with noninvasive brain stimulation before participants repeatedly decided whether to exert mental effort in a working memory task. We found the same DLPFC subregion involved in mental effort exertion to influence also effort-based decisions: First, it enhanced effort discounting, suggesting that DLPFC may signal the capacity to successfully deal with effort demands. Second, a novel computational model integrating the costs of enduring effort into the effort-based decision process revealed that DLPFC disruption reduced fatigue after accumulated effort exertion, linking DLPFC activation with fatigue. Together, our findings indicate that in effort-based decisions DLPFC represents the capacity to exert mental effort and the updating of this information with enduring time-on-task, informing theoretical accounts on the role of DLPFC in the motivation to exert mental effort and the fatigue arising from it.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 32710816 · DOI · PMC7555063
Depressive symptoms reduce when dorsolateral prefrontal cortex-precuneus connectivity normalizes after functional connectivity neurofeedback [3]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Depressive disorders contribute heavily to global disease burden; This is possibly because patients are often treated homogeneously, despite having heterogeneous symptoms with differing underlying neural mechanisms.
- Closing excerpt
- Clinical trial registration: Both experiments reported here were registered clinical trials (UMIN000015249, jRCTs052180169).
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (275 words)
Depressive disorders contribute heavily to global disease burden; This is possibly because patients are often treated homogeneously, despite having heterogeneous symptoms with differing underlying neural mechanisms. A novel treatment that can directly influence the neural circuit relevant to an individual patient's subset of symptoms might more precisely and thus effectively aid in the alleviation of their specific symptoms. We tested this hypothesis in a proof-of-concept study using fMRI functional connectivity neurofeedback. We targeted connectivity between the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex/middle frontal gyrus and the left precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex, because this connection has been well-established as relating to a specific subset of depressive symptoms. Specifically, this connectivity has been shown in a data-driven manner to be less anticorrelated in patients with melancholic depression than in healthy controls. Furthermore, a posterior cingulate dominant state-which results in a loss of this anticorrelation-is expected to specifically relate to an increase in rumination symptoms such as brooding. In line with predictions, we found that, with neurofeedback training, the more a participant normalized this connectivity (restored the anticorrelation), the more related (depressive and brooding symptoms), but not unrelated (trait anxiety), symptoms were reduced. Because these results look promising, this paradigm next needs to be examined with a greater sample size and with better controls. Nonetheless, here we provide preliminary evidence for a correlation between the normalization of a neural network and a reduction in related symptoms. Showing their reproducibility, these results were found in two experiments that took place several years apart by different experimenters. Indicative of its potential clinical utility, effects of this treatment remained one-two months later.Clinical trial registration: Both experiments reported here were registered clinical trials (UMIN000015249, jRCTs052180169).
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 35173179 · DOI · PMC8850610
Uncovering the signatures of aging and senescence in the human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [4]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- We performed Visium spatial transcriptomics (ST) and single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) on a cohort of nonpathological human tissues to uncover signatures of aging and senescence in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC).
- Closing excerpt
- These findings will help facilitate future studies exploring the role of senescent cell subpopulations in the aging brain.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (150 words)
We performed Visium spatial transcriptomics (ST) and single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) on a cohort of nonpathological human tissues to uncover signatures of aging and senescence in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). In doing so, we identified gene expression changes characteristic of aged cortical layers. The cellular composition of the dlPFC also changed with age, with increased homeostatic astrocyte abundance and with decreased somatostatin (SST) inhibitory neurons. Nuclei from dlPFC cell types displayed a strong decline in oxidative phosphorylation- and cytoplasmic translation-related genes with age. Additionally, oligodendrocytes showed several hallmarks of senescence and a linear increase in CDKN2A expression with age. Combined analysis of ST and snRNA-seq datasets revealed astrocyte- and vascular cell-related gene expression programs in the white matter and layer 1 that were strongly enriched with age and for senescence-associated genes. These findings will help facilitate future studies exploring the role of senescent cell subpopulations in the aging brain.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 41576945 · DOI · PMC12903411
Key reviews and meta-analyses
The most cited review-type papers among PubMed’s best-match results for this heading, listed with bibliographic details only. Follow the links for the full text and access terms.
- Research article Executive Dysfunction and the Prefrontal Cortex [5]
- Research article Effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on symptom domains in neuropsychiatric disorders: a systematic review and cross-diagnostic meta-analysis [6]
- Research article The role of dlPFC laterality in the expression and regulation of anxiety [7]
- Research article Efficacy and tolerability of theta-burst stimulation for major depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis [8]
- Research article Stress and Inflammation Target Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Function: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Weakened Cognitive Control [9]
- Research article Functional significance of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during exhaustive exercise [10]
References
- Bauer CCC, Rozenkrantz L, Caballero C, Nieto-Castanon A, Scherer E, West MR, et al.. Mindfulness training preserves sustained attention and resting state anticorrelation between default-mode network and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex: A randomized controlled trial. . 2020. PMID 32969562 · DOI · PMC7670646
- Soutschek A, Tobler PN. Causal role of lateral prefrontal cortex in mental effort and fatigue. . 2020. PMID 32710816 · DOI · PMC7555063
- Taylor JE, Yamada T, Kawashima T, Kobayashi Y, Yoshihara Y, Miyata J, et al.. Depressive symptoms reduce when dorsolateral prefrontal cortex-precuneus connectivity normalizes after functional connectivity neurofeedback. . 2022. PMID 35173179 · DOI · PMC8850610
- Sloan NX, Mares J, Daly AC, Grier S, Haq I, Jackson CA, et al.. Uncovering the signatures of aging and senescence in the human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. . 2026. PMID 41576945 · DOI · PMC12903411
- Jones DT, Graff-Radford J. Executive Dysfunction and the Prefrontal Cortex. Continuum (Minneap Minn). 2021. PMID 34881727 · DOI
- Kan RLD, Padberg F, Giron CG, Lin TTZ, Zhang BBB, Brunoni AR, et al.. Effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on symptom domains in neuropsychiatric disorders: a systematic review and cross-diagnostic meta-analysis. Lancet Psychiatry. 2023. PMID 36898403 · DOI
- White LK, Makhoul W, Teferi M, Sheline YI, Balderston NL. The role of dlPFC laterality in the expression and regulation of anxiety. Neuropharmacology. 2023. PMID 36442650 · DOI · PMC9790039
- Chu HT, Cheng CM, Liang CS, Chang WH, Juan CH, Huang YZ, et al.. Efficacy and tolerability of theta-burst stimulation for major depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2021. PMID 33166668 · DOI
- Joyce MKP, Uchendu S, Arnsten AFT. Stress and Inflammation Target Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Function: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Weakened Cognitive Control. Biol Psychiatry. 2025. PMID 38944141 · DOI · PMC11671620
- Bigliassi M, Filho E. Functional significance of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during exhaustive exercise. Biol Psychol. 2022. PMID 36243197 · DOI
About this article
- Sources
- NLM Medical Subject Headings (definition, synonyms); NCBI PubMed (counts, identifiers); Europe PMC (open-access abstracts and citation counts).
- Verification
- Every reference was resolved against PubMed on 2026-10-31; title, year and DOI matched.
- Review state
- automated source verified; no human expert review has been recorded yet.
- Version
- 1, last updated 2026-10-29.
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Evidence strength
EvidenceHelix's computed view of the study designs behind this topic: how common meta-analyses, randomized trials and reviews are, how recent the literature is, and a plain-language reading. It describes the design mix of the literature. It is not a quality appraisal of any study, and it is not medical advice.