HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cognitive Science
The Neurological Implications of Metacognition
Curry College, Milton, United States
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Abstract
This review synthesizes current understanding of metacognitive processes across neuroscientific, clinical, and educational domains. Metacognition, defined broadly to encompass knowledge/awareness, and monitoring/regulation of one's cognitive processes spans both neurological and psychological domains. This quality holds significant implications for human development. Neuroimaging evidence suggests that metacognition relies on distributed networks spanning prefrontal-parietal circuits, with connections to the anterior cingulate and hippocampus. These regions demonstrate experience-dependent structural changes, as well as regulate the cognitive processes that drive neuroplastic behavior. The bifurcated model of metacognition, which distinguishes between metacognitive knowledge and regulation, represent an embodied perspective of a prediction based problem-solving framework that can be used to inform the development of clinical and educational interventions seeking to support neurodiversity. Evidence suggests that targeted intensive cognitive training may produce neural changes through well-characterized neuroplastic mechanisms. However, establishing causal links between metacognitive training specifically and structural brain reorganization requires additional research with appropriate neuroimaging protocols and control conditions. These converging lines of evidence establish a metacognitive problem-solving axis encompassing neural, cognitive, and behavioral functioning as the primary mechanism for controlled psychobiological reorganization. By focusing an individual's powers of problem solving upon their own development and understanding of their own problem-solving process, clinical interventions can be developed that are less coercive and more supportive of individual neurodiversity. The neurological implications of metacognition suggest that individuals can be supported in developing the optimal environments, procedures, and pedagogies to improve their learning and development, in turn affecting their underlying neurological architecture.
Summary
Keywords
clinical interventions, metacognition, Neural reorganization, neuroplasticity, Neuroscience, Prefrontal Cortex
Received
28 November 2025
Accepted
09 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Hulbig. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Philip R. Hulbig
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.