Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex (original) (raw)
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Anterior Cingulate Cortex: Unique Role in Cognition and Emotion WINDOWS TO THE BRAIN
Figure 1. (Left): The cingulate cortex (colored areas) lies in the medial wall of each hemisphere, adjacent to the corpus callosum (white). Brodmann divided this area into a precingulate (pink), now called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and a postcingulate (blue) now called the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). 1 (Right): The ACC is further subdivided into two major sections. The three most common approaches to naming are illustrated. 1–3 The dorsal posterior section (outlined in gold) has been called caudal or dorsal ACC. In Vogt's system it is considered a separate area, the middle cingulate cortex (MCC). The ventral anterior section (outlined in yellow) has been called rostral or ventral ACC. In Vogt's system, it is considered ACC. These major sections are commonly further divided, as illustrated. Figure 2. (Left): Von Economo (spindle) neurons are found in humans and great apes, but not other nonhu-man primates, nor in most mammals. 4,5 In humans, they are found in the insula and cingulate cortex (yellow area on MRI). These are large projection neurons, with an average volume more than four times that of pyramidal neurons. The apical and basal dendrites are also quite different from pyramidal neurons, both longer and less branched. It has been suggested that the larger size may indicate faster conduction times and more extensive connections. (Right): A pyramidal neuron is illustrated for comparison. Cover and Figure 3. Parcellation of cingulate cortex based on patterns of structural connectivity (estimated from diffusion tensor imaging) support the presence of multiple functional regions. Approximations of the areas of cingulate cortex with the strongest connections to specific cortical and subcortical regions are color-coded onto midline sagittal MR images. 6 The resultant parcellation is illustrated on the cover.
Anterior Cingulate Cortex: Unique Role in Cognition and Emotion
Journal of Neuropsychiatry, 2011
Figure 1. (Left): The cingulate cortex (colored areas) lies in the medial wall of each hemisphere, adjacent to the corpus callosum (white). Brodmann divided this area into a precingulate (pink), now called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and a postcingulate (blue) now called the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). 1 (Right): The ACC is further subdivided into two major sections. The three most common approaches to naming are illustrated. 1-3 The dorsal posterior section (outlined in gold) has been called caudal or dorsal ACC. In Vogt's system it is considered a separate area, the middle cingulate cortex (MCC). The ventral anterior section (outlined in yellow) has been called rostral or ventral ACC. In Vogt's system, it is considered ACC. These major sections are commonly further divided, as illustrated.
The role of the anterior cingulate cortex in emotional response inhibition
Human Brain Mapping, 2012
Although the involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in emotional response inhibition is well established, there are several outstanding issues about the nature of this involvement that are not well understood. The present study aimed to examine the precise contribution of the ACC to emotionmodulated response inhibition by capitalizing on fine temporal resolution of the event-related potentials (ERPs) and the recent advances in source localization. To this end, participants (N ¼ 30) performed an indirect affective Go/Nogo task (i.e., unrelated to the emotional content of stimulation) that required the inhibition of a motor response to three types of visual stimuli: arousing negative (AÀ), neutral (N), and arousing positive (Aþ). Behavioral data revealed that participants made more commission errors to Aþ than to N and AÀ. Electrophysiological data showed that a specific region of the ACC at the intersection of its dorsal and rostral subdivisions was significantly involved in the interaction between emotional processing and motor inhibition. Specifically, activity reflecting this interaction was observed in the P3 (but not in the N2) time range, and was greater during the inhibition of responses to Aþ than to N and AÀ. Additionally, regression analyses showed that inhibition-related activity within this ACC region was associated with the emotional content of the stimuli (its activity increased as stimulus valence was more positive), and also with behavioral performance (both with reaction times and commission errors). The present results provide additional data for understanding how, when, and where emotion interacts with response inhibition within the ACC. Hum Brain Mapp 00:000-000, 2011. V
The integration of negative affect, pain and cognitive control in the cingulate cortex
It has been argued that emotion, pain and cognitive control are functionally segregated in distinct subdivisions of the cingulate cortex. However, recent observations encourage a fundamentally different view. Imaging studies demonstrate that negative affect, pain and cognitive control activate an overlapping region of the dorsal cingulate — the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC). Anatomical studies reveal that the aMCC constitutes a hub where information about reinforcers can be linked to motor centres responsible for expressing affect and executing goal-directed behaviour. Computational modelling and other kinds of evidence suggest that this intimacy reflects control processes that are common to all three domains. These observations compel a reconsideration of the dorsal cingulate's contribution to negative affect and pain.
2018
We investigated afferent inputs from all areas in the frontal cortex (FC) to different subregions in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC). Using retrograde tracing in macaque monkeys, we quantified projection strength by counting retrogradely labeled cells in each FC area. The projection from different FC regions varied across injection sites in strength, following different spatial patterns. Importantly, a site at the rostral end of the cingulate sulcus stood out as having strong inputs from many areas in diverse FC regions. Moreover, it was at the integrative conjunction of three projection trends across sites. This site marks a connectional hub inside the rACC that integrates FC inputs across functional modalities. Tractography with monkey diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) located a similar hub region comparable to the tracing result. Applying the same tractography method to human dMRI data, we demonstrated that a similar hub can be located in the human rACC.
Anterior cingulate activity during error and autonomic response
NeuroImage, 2005
The contribution of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to human cognition remains unclear. The rostral (rACC) and dorsal (dACC) ACC cortex are implicated in tasks that require increased response control due to emotional and cognitive interference, respectively. However, both rACC and dACC are activated by conditions that induce changes in visceral arousal, suggesting that ACC supports a generation of integrated bodily responses. To clarify the relationship between purely cognitive and psychophysiological accounts of ACC function, we scanned 15 subjects using functional magnetic resonance imaging while they performed numerical versions of the Stroop task. To index autonomic arousal, we simultaneously measured pupil diameter. Performance errors accounted for most of the variance in a pupil-derived measure of evoked autonomic arousal. In analysis of the functional imaging data, activity within a region spanning rACC and dACC predicted trial-by-trial variation in autonomic response magnitude and was enhanced during error trials, shown using conjunction analyses. Activity within other loci within rACC predicted evoked autonomic arousal and showed sensitivity to errors but did not meet criteria for both. These data highlight the role of ACC in psychophysiological aspects of error processing and suggest that an interface exists within ACC between cognitive and biobehavioral systems in the service of response adaptation.
Developmental Psychobiology, 1997
This study examines the role of the anterior cingulate in the development of attention. Task performance relying predominantly on either automatic or controlled processes was correlated with magnetic resonance imaging based measures of the anterior cingulate in 26 normal children ages 5 to 16 years. Attentional measures were assessed with a visual discrimination paradigm. Parasagittal slices from a 3-D, T1-weighted volume data set were used to obtain area measurements of the anterior cingulate. Response latencies decreased with age for both tasks. There were significant correlations between attentional performance and right, but not left, anterior cingulate measures. Performance was faster and more accurate during trials requiring predominantly controlled processes for those children with larger right anterior cingulate measures. The results are consistent with adult neuroimaging findings of activation in the right anterior cingulate during attention tasks and with lesion studies implicating greater right hemisphere involvement in attentional processes.
Emotional processing in anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex
Trends in cognitive sciences, 2011
Negative emotional stimuli activate a broad network of brain regions, including the medial prefrontal (mPFC) and anterior cingulate (ACC) cortices. An early influential view dichotomized these regions into dorsal-caudal cognitive and ventral-rostral affective subdivisions. In this review, we examine a wealth of recent research on negative emotions in animals and humans, using the example of fear or anxiety, and conclude that, contrary to the traditional dichotomy, both subdivisions make key contributions to emotional processing. Specifically, dorsal-caudal regions of the ACC and mPFC are involved in appraisal and expression of negative emotion, whereas ventral-rostral portions of the ACC and mPFC have a regulatory role with respect to limbic regions involved in generating emotional responses. Moreover, this new framework is broadly consistent with emerging data on other negative and positive emotions.