inhibitory control inhibitory control inhibitory control, also known as response inhibition, is a cognitive process – and, more specifically, an executive function – that permits an individual to inhibit their impulses and natural, habitual, or dominant behavioral responses to stimuli (a.k.a. prepotent responses) in order to select a more appropriate behavior that is consistent with completing their goals. self-control is an important aspect of inhibitory control. for example, successfully suppressing the natural behavioral response to eat cake when one is craving it while dieting requires the use of inhibitory control. "impulse control" redirects here. for the class of psychiatric disorders, see impulse control disorder. part of a series onpsychology outline history subfields basic types abnormal behavioral behavioral genetics biological cognitive/cognitivism comparative cross-cultural cultural developmental differential evolutionary experimental mathematical neuropsychology personality positive psychodynamic psychometrics quantitative social applied psychology applied behavior analysis clinical community consumer counseling critical educational environmental ergonomics food forensic health humanistic industrial and organizational legal medical military music occupational health political psychometrics religion school sport traffic lists disciplines organizations psychologists psychotherapies research methods theories timeline topics psychology portal neuropsychology topics brain regions clinical neuropsychology cognitive neuropsychology cognitive neuroscience dementia human brain neuroanatomy neurophysiology neuropsychological assessment neuropsychological rehabilitation traumatic brain injury brain functions arousal attention consciousness decision making executive functions natural language learning memory motor coordination perception planning problem solving thought people alan baddeley arthur l. benton david bohm antonio damasio phineas gage norman geschwind elkhonon goldberg patricia goldman-rakic donald o. hebb kenneth heilman eric kandel edith kaplan muriel lezak benjamin libet rodolfo llinás alexander luria brenda milner karl h. pribram pasko rakic oliver sacks mark rosenzweig roger w. sperry hans-lukas teuber henry molaison ("h.m.", patient) k.c. (patient) tests benton visual retention test continuous performance task halstead-reitan neuropsychological battery hayling and brixton tests lexical decision task luria-nebraska neuropsychological battery mini–mental state examination rey–osterrieth complex figure stroop test wechsler adult intelligence scale wechsler memory scale wisconsin card sorting task psychology portal philosophy portal medicine portal the prefrontal cortex, caudate nucleus, and subthalamic nucleus are known to regulate inhibitory control cognition. inhibitory control is impaired in both addiction and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. in healthy adults and adhd individuals, inhibitory control improves over the short term with low (therapeutic) doses of methylphenidate or amphetamine. inhibitory control may also be improved over the long-term via consistent aerobic exercise. tests an inhibitory control test is a neuropsychological test that measures an individual's ability to override their natural, habitual, or dominant behavioral response to a stimulus in order to implement more adaptive goal-oriented behaviors. some of the neuropsychological tests that measure inhibitory control include the stroop task, go/no-go task, simon task, flanker task, antisaccade tasks, delay of gratification tasks, and stop-signal tasks.