Cognitive symptoms, considered in conjunction both with their regional brain and biomarkers as well as affective, attributional
and neurode-velopmental components, demonstate ever-increasing complexity to facilitate conceptualization yet, unavoidably,
bedevil diagnosis in neuropsychiatry even before considerations of the enigmatic processes in memory, such as executive function
and working memory, are drawn into the myriads of equations that await remedial interpretations. Prefrontal and limbic regions
of the brain are involved in a diversity of expressions of cognition, normal or dysfunctional, at synaptic, intracellular
and molecular levels that mobilize a concatenation of signaling entities. Serotoninergic neurotransission at prefrontal regions
directs cogntive-affective entities that mediate decision-making and goal-directed behaviour. Clinical, non-clinical and basic
studies challenge attempts to consolidate the multitude of evidence in order to obtain therapeutic notions to alleviate the
disordered status of the diagnosed and yet-to-be diagnosed individuals. Locus of control, a concept of some utility in health-seeking
procedures, is examined in three self-report studies from the perspective of a cognitive-emotional situation through observations
of ordinary, ‘healthy’ young and middle-aged individuals, to assess the predictors of internal and external locus of control.
A notion based on high level executive functioning in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in individuals characterised
by internal locus of control is contrasted with a hypofunctional executive DLPFC, characterising individuals that express
an external locus of control, is discussed.
Keywords Cognition - PFC - Executive function - GABA - NMDA - Schizophrenia - Alzheimer’s - Aging - Affect - Chronic illness - Locus of control - Symptoms