Planning (cognitive)

It encompasses the neurological processes involved in the formulation, evaluation and selection of a sequence of thoughts and actions to achieve a desired goal.

Various studies utilizing a combination of neuropsychological, neuropharmacological and functional neuroimaging approaches have suggested there is a positive relationship between impaired planning ability and damage to the frontal lobe.

Disruption of the neural pathways, via various mechanisms such as traumatic brain injury, or the effects of neurodegenerative diseases between this area of the frontal cortex and the basal ganglia specifically the striatum (cortico-striatal pathway), may disrupt the processes required for normal planning function.

In test, participants with damage to the right anterior, and left or right posterior areas of the frontal lobes showed no impairment.

[4] J P Das, Binod C Kar, Rauno K Parrila, Cognitive Planning: The Psychological Basis of Intelligent Behaviour.

The Striatum ; part of the basal ganglia ; neural pathways between the striatum and the frontal lobe have been implicated in planning function.
A version of the Tower of Hanoi utilizing four discs.
Animation of a four disc version of the Tower of Hanoi .
Screenshot of the PEBL psychology software running the Tower of London test