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The neuroscience of mental flexibility Mental flexibility is an important factor in effective adaptation to a changing environment, enabling the transition to new strategies and solutions instead of ingrained habits and fixed behaviors. The components of mental flexibility include attention, importance perception, working memory, inhibition and switching processes, which can be examined with psychological tests. These data can be compared with the structural and functional characteristics of the brain observed in the baseline state and during task performance. Analyzing the central nervous system background of mental flexibility with neurobiological, pharmacological and imaging methods, it was found that certain brain areas (anterior frontal lobe, cingulate gyrus, striatum, inferior parietal lobe) with their connection networks, as well as certain chemical neurotransmitters (e.g. dopamine) play a fundamental role in this. Mental flexibility can change under stress. Although flexible change is generally considered positive and beneficial, permanence that maintains customs, conventions, and traditions can also have advantages in certain circumstances.