RE: origin of "executive" function
My colleague, Bob Logie, of the University of Aberdeen, has passed on the following suggestions: It depends on whether the issue is about the term 'executive' as applying to some aspect of cognitive function, or the concept that the term 'executive' is intended to capture. If the latter, then the concept is found in the writings of Plato, Hippocrates and Aristotle to name but a few. The translation from the Greek 'noetos' is 'thought' or intellectual activity. Several of the 'Age of Enlightenment' philosophers referred to similar concepts. Hughlings-Jackson in the second half of the 19th century developed the idea of a functional hierarchy in the nervous system, with a particular function responsible for organising purposeful behaviour. There is a bit of review of the origins of executive functions in a chapter by Sergio Della Sala and myself. Della Sala, S. & Logie, R.H. (1998). Dualism down the drain: Thinking in the brain. In K.J. Gilhooly and R.H. Logie (Eds.). Thinking in Working Memory, pp 45-66. Hove, UK: The Psychology Press. John Richardson