The central executive: A concept and some misconceptions

Abstract

Parkin's criticisms of the central executive are based on a series of misconceptions. The central executive is not an organ that might or might not exist, but a scientific concept. Part of its function is to separate the analysis of executive processes from the question of their anatomical location. Like other components of working memory, it is fractionable into subsystems. How the subsystems interrelate and how they map onto the anatomical substrate are empirical questions under active current investigation. (JINS, 1998, 4, 523–526.)