Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex (original) (raw)

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.

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.

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

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.

Anterior Cingulate Pathways May Affect Emotions Through Orbitofrontal Cortex

Cerebral Cortex, 2016

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and posterior orbitofrontal cortex (pOFC) are associated with emotional regulation. These regions are old in phylogeny and have widespread connections with eulaminate neocortices, intricately linking areas associated with emotion and cognition. The ACC and pOFC have distinct cortical and subcortical connections and are also interlinked, but the pattern of their connections-which may be used to infer the flow of information between them-is not well understood. Here we found that pathways from ACC area 32 innervated all pOFC areas with a significant proportion of large and efficient terminals, seen at the level of the system and the synapse. The pathway from area 32 targeted overwhelmingly elements of excitatory neurons in pOFC, with few postsynaptic sites found on presumed inhibitory neurons. Moreover, pathways from area 32 originated mostly in the upper layers and innervated preferentially the middledeep layers of the least differentiated pOFC areas, in a pattern reminiscent of feedforward communication. Pathway terminations from area 32 overlapped in the deep layers of pOFC with output pathways that project to the thalamus and the amygdala, and may have cascading downstream effects on emotional and cognitive processes and their disruption in psychiatric disorders.

Conjoint activity of anterior insular and anterior cingulate cortex: awareness and response

Brain Structure and Function, 2010

There is now a wealth of evidence that anterior insular and anterior cingulate cortices have a close functional relationship, such that they may be considered together as input and output regions of a functional system. This system is typically engaged across cognitive, affective, and behavioural contexts, suggesting that it is of fundamental importance for mental life. Here, we review the literature and reinforce the case that these brain regions are crucial, firstly, for the production of subjective feelings and, secondly, for coordinating appropriate responses to internal and external events. This model seeks to integrate higher-order cortical functions with sensory representation and autonomic control: it is argued that feeling states emerge from the raw data of sensory (including interoceptive) inputs and are integrated through representations in conscious awareness. Correspondingly, autonomic nervous system reactivity is particularly important amongst the responses that accompany conscious experiences. Potential clinical implications are also discussed.

Interference produced by emotional conflict associated with anterior cingulate activation

Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 2006

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is involved in cognition and emotion. In the classic Stroop task, presentation of stimuli that are in response conflict with one another produces activation in the caudal ACC. In the emotional Stroop task, presentation of emotionally salient stimuli produces activation in the rostral ACC. Presentation of stimuli that are emotionally conflicting should activate the caudal ACC; stimuli that are emotionally salient should activate the rostral ACC. We tested this prediction using functional magnetic resonance imaging while subjects made emotional valence judgments of words overlaid on emotional faces (word-face Stroop task). Emotionally incongruent pairs were responded to more slowly than emotionally congruent pairs. Emotionally incongruent trials were associated with increased activation within the caudal ACC, whereas no ACC activation was found in response to emotional saliency. These results support the conflict-monitoring model of caudal ACC and extend this function to conflict within the domain of emotional stimuli.

Response selection in the human anterior cingulate cortex

Nature neuroscience, 1999

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has been proposed as part of the brain's attentional control network, but the exact nature of its involvement in cognitive and motor operations is under debate. Assessing effects of human ACC damage directly addresses the problem of ACC function. We report that executive control processes of a patient with a focal right hemisphere anterior cingulate lesion were not compromised. However, her performance level depended on the response modality used. Under the same task requirements, she was impaired when giving manual responses, but not vocal responses. Thus, we provide neuropsychological evidence for functional specialization within the human ACC.

Expectations, gains, and losses in the anterior cingulate cortex

Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 2007

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) participates in evaluating actions and outcomes. Little is known on how action-reward values are processed in ACC and if the context in which actions are performed influences this processing. In the present article, we report ACC unit activity of monkeys performing two tasks. The first task tested whether the encoding of reward values is context