Sublime

COGNITION—mental activities such as thinking, memory, perception, judgment, and learning.

Intelligence is a very general mental capacity which, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for

ability to think, reason, or learn.

When prefrontal regions are either surgically removed or fall prey to some calamity, patients continue to see, hear, and sense. Deficits affect the higher mental faculties, resulting in apathy, a lack of curiosity about the world, and a disability in planning, introspecting, reasoning, and regulating emotions. Patients perseverate or consistently

These negative cognitions are a verbal expression of the emotions and thoughts that are a part of the unprocessed memories. In Jon’s case, when he thought of the latest incident at work, his negative cognition

‘Indeed,’ he confirmed. ‘But notice that layered cognitive activity is not limited to the performance of tasks. It applies also to how you feel about life and self.’

Our prefrontal cortexes allow us to think about our own minds. Our brains think about themselves. Psychologists call it metacognition.