The prefrontal cortex is the brain’s executive hub — the site of decision-making, moral reasoning, future planning, and social judgment. It integrates sensory data from posterior regions (like the parietal and occipital lobes) with emotional input from the limbic system to guide complex, goal-oriented behavior. The PFC is often divided into the dorsolateral (working memory, logic), ventromedial (emotion and value-based reasoning), and orbitofrontal (reward evaluation) regions. It matures late — well into a person’s twenties — and its evolution is considered central to what makes human cognition distinct. Historically, its role was illuminated by the famous case ofPhineas Gagein the 1840s, whose frontal injury dramatically altered his personality, revealing the PFC’s role in regulating self and impulse.