Cognitive control (with the closely related concepts of attention control and executive function) encompasses the collection of processes that are involved in generating and maintaining appropriate task goals and suppressing task goals that are no longer relevant, as well as the way in which current goal representations are used to modify attentional biases to improve task performance. Here, we provide a comprehensive but nonexhaustive review of this complex literature, with an emphasis on the contributions made by techniques for studying human brain function. The review is divided into five sections: (a) overview and historical perspective of cognitive control, its subcomponent processes, and its neural substrate; (b) most common types of tasks used to assess and/or manipulate the level of control; (c) main research findings obtained with various imaging methodologies, with a focus on ERP data, and briefer overviews of oscillatory (event-related spectral perturbations) and fMRI data; (d) major theories of cognitive control; and (e) discussion of open questions regarding how to integrate the various dimensions of control, as well as the faster versus slower temporal dynamics informing this complex and multifaceted concept.

ERP research on task switching has revealed distinct transient and sustained positive waveforms (latency circa 300–900 ms) while shifting task rules or stimulus‐response (S‐R) mappings. However, it remains unclear whether such switch‐related positivities show similar scalp topography and index context‐updating mechanisms akin to those posed for domain‐general (i.e., classic P300) positivities in many task domains. To examine this question, ERPs were recorded from 31 young adults (18–30 years) while they were intermittently cued to switch or repeat their perceptual categorization of Gabor gratings varying in color and thickness (switch task), or else they performed two visually identical control tasks (go/no‐go and oddball). Our task cueing paradigm examined two temporarily distinct stages of proactive rule updating and reactive rule execution. A simple information theory model helped us gauge cognitive demands under distinct temporal and task contexts in terms of low‐level S‐R pathways and higher‐order rule updating operations. Task demands modulated domain‐general (indexed by classic oddball P3) and switch positivities—indexed by both a cue‐locked late positive complex and a sustained positivity ensuing task transitions. Topographic scalp analyses confirmed subtle yet significant split‐second changes in the configuration of neural sources for both domain‐general P3s and switch positivities as a function of both the temporal and task context. These findings partly meet predictions from information estimates, and are compatible with a family of P3‐like potentials indexing functionally distinct neural operations within a common frontoparietal “multiple demand” system during the preparation and execution of simple task rules.

Cognitive control involves both proactive and reactive processes. Paradigms that rely on reactive control have shown that frontoparietal oscillatory synchronization in the theta frequency band is associated with interference control. This study examines whether proactive control is also associated with connectivity in the same frontoparietal theta network or involves a distinct neural signature. A task-switching paradigm was used to differentiate between proactive and reactive control processes, involved in preparing to switch or repeat a task and resolving post-target interference, respectively. We confirm that reactive control is associated with frontoparietal theta connectivity. Importantly, we show that proactive control is also associated with theta band oscillatory synchronization but in a different frontoparietal network. These findings support the existence of distinct proactive and reactive cognitive control processes that activate different theta frontoparietal oscillatory networks.

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