As mentioned, neural structures involved in cognitive, affective, and autonomic regulation are related to HRV and cognitive performance.

The main difference between the executive and the nonexecutive tasks is that the executive tasks require active attention, while nonexecutive task only require passive attention toward the event

In addition, these cortical regions are implicated in inhibitory functions that are known to be critical for the performance of executive-function tasks. Relatedly performance on working memory tasks has been reported to be significantly related to general intelligence as indexed by standard IQ tests

As such, optimal prefrontal functioning is necessary for the formation of associations and the representation of acquired relationships between disparate pieces of informa-tion, including information separated in time