Mental flexibility
Set-shifting
Also searched as Set-shifting.
In depth
A subdomain of executive function: changing rule, strategy or task set when conditions change. Distinct from inhibition, though both live in the frontal lobes.
What drives it
Sleep increases it.
10.3389/fnins.2025.1626309 — cognitive flexibility tasks (d = -0.30, 95% CI: -0.59 to -0.01). doi 10.3389/fnins.2025.1626309 · PMC6363670
What it drives
It increases Executive function.
38816884 — The DSM-5 Neurocognitive Work Group agreed on six principal domains of cognitive function, each with subdomains. Executive function comprises planning, decision making, working memory, responding to feedback, inhibition and cognitive flexibility. Taxonomic edge, not a causal mechanism: this is a DSM-5 domain/subdomain relationship, not a pathway acting on another. Sachdev 2014, Nat Rev Neurol 10:634-642 — Classifying neurocognitive disorders: the DSM-5 approach. doi 10.1038/nrneurol.2014.181
It increases Living independently.
Major neurocognitive disorder is diagnosed when cognitive decline interferes with independence in everyday activities; the DSM-5 functional criterion was revised so the threshold emphasizes loss of independence in daily living. Sachdev 2014, Nat Rev Neurol 10:634-642 — Classifying neurocognitive disorders: the DSM-5 approach. doi 10.1038/nrneurol.2014.181 That criterion is stated of the cognitive deficits COLLECTIVELY, as the mild-versus-major threshold - it does not attribute loss of independence to this one subdomain, so the arrow is carried by its own study: 'spontaneous and reactive flexibilities predicted a decline in i-ADL'. doi 10.1038/nrneurol.2014.181
Blends that modulate it
Each blend page names this pathway and carries the study behind its claim.
See it on the map
Open the causal map to follow this pathway upstream and downstream, arrow by arrow, each with its study.