Inhibition

Inhibition, or inhibitory control, is “the ability to resist or suppress urges to perceive, feel, think, or act on first impulse,”¹ or “the ability to reject an automatic tendency in a given situation.”² So, while inhibition is, therefore, the core EF behind impulsivity,³ it is also behind “covert, internal cognitive operations such as the control of memory,” and attention itself. ⁴

Response Inhibition

Also called behavioral inhibition, motor inhibition, prepotent response inhibition, and attentional restraint,⁵ response inhibition is “the ability to override the tendency towards automatic but inappropriate responses.”⁶ Effective response inhibition is what stops us from blurting out the “wrong thing,” reaching for our favorite food when we’re on a diet, or otherwise acting without thinking.

Interference Control

A separate but overlapping aspect of inhibition is interference control⁶, also called attentional inhibition, interference suppression, attention constraint, and resistance to distractor interference.⁵ It is “the ability to select relevant information from amidst irrelevant information.”⁶ This includes being able to suppress unwanted thoughts or memories,⁷ as well as keep our attention on target without getting distracted.

Emotional Control

A feature of both Working Memory & Inhibition is emotion regulation/control (EC) (schm-
10.1037/a0013345 ).^​​ EC “entails efforts to influence the experience, expression, or duration of an emotional response”^​(Schm) It has been shown that people with higher working memory abilities are more able to successfully suppress emotions when appropriate (or demanded), and “more capably appraised emotional stimuli in an unemotional manner and thereby experienced (…) and expressed (…) less emotion in response to those stimuli.”^​(Schm)​ It is assumed that this works because “working memory capacity sustains goal-relevant responses in the presence of competing responses or distractions,” and thus allows the brain to prioritize the goal behavior over the distracting emotional impulses.^​(Schm)

Across the Lifespan

The basics of inhibition are present from infancy,⁸ but it continues to develop throughout childhood and into adolescence and adulthood, with a significant decrease of impulsive behavior after age 10.⁹

As people age, there is a natural reduction in the brain’s ability to “inhibit intrusive external stimuli and internal thoughts,” causing lower scores on measures of inhibitory control for older adults compared to younger adults.¹⁰

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