How the Anterior Cingulate Cortex Affects Cognitive Function

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is a region of the human brain (Brodmann area 24, 33, and 34) located at the cingulate cortex’s most frontal part. The ACC wraps around the corpus callosum, a bundle of nerve fibers found beneath the cerebral cortex, and is located before the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), which is adjacent to the frontal lobe. This part of the brain is responsible for many functions, including emotional expression and awareness, pain management, attention allocation, and autonomic nervous system response.

The ACC is split into dorsal (caudal) and ventral (rostral) subdivisions:

• Dorsal: The dorsal subdivision is in charge of cognitive control. The dorsal ACC subregion connects to the prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex, motor areas, and eye fields responsible for interpreting stimuli—like top-down and bottom-up processing.
• Ventral: The ventral ACC is connected to the limbic system and is in charge of emotional response and reactivity. This subdivision includes the anterior insula, amygdala, hippocampus, and hypothalamus, all of which play a role in processing emotional information. The ACC also has connections to the orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum, which manages the brain’s reward system.

The ACC is responsible for numerous functions, such as:

1. 1. Emotional expression: The ACC plays a vital role in our emotional modulation. Negative emotional stimuli can impact multiple brain regions, including the medial prefrontal cortex. Both the anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortex are integral to emotional response and mood regulation. The ACC, in particular, deals with how we handle or avoid painful emotions. Some neuroimaging studies show below-average activation in brain processing for individuals with addiction, establishing a link between impairments of the ACC (like lesions or damage) and people who turn to substances or maladaptive behaviors to deal with unwanted emotions.
2. 2. Emotional awareness: The ACC helps the human brain interpret emotional cues and choose appropriate emotional responses based on that stimuli. According to research published in the Journal of Neuropsychology and Clinical Neurosciences, individuals with high ACC activation may have better emotional awareness. Conversely, those with impairments in their social cognition, like schizophrenia, have shown abnormalities in their ACC’s functionality, which can contribute to feelings of disconnection, aberrant salience attribution, and trouble identifying the emotions of others or determining their emotional reactions. People with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a form of major depressive disorder (MDD), may also have disruptions in the dynamic of their ACC processes.
3. 3. Decision-making: The connection of the ACC to the orbitofrontal cortex equates to a direct impact on reward-based decision-making. The ACC allows us to analyze potential actions and determine which choice will have the most positive or desirable outcome. This function is especially important for adaptation, as it lets our brains quickly assess our circumstances and make quick decisions that can be integral to our immediate benefit or survival.
4. 4. Pain management: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies done to assess functional connectivity have found an increase in ACC signal intensity when a person experiences physical pain. This cortical area regulates how we emotionally respond to the sensation of pain rather than the perception of the pain itself.
5. 5. Attention allocation: The ACC is also the brain area that helps us decide which tasks or events get priority attention by helping our brains evaluate the value of our options. From a psychiatric standpoint, abnormalities within the ACC can be seen in people with mental disorders such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which is a dysfunction in the attention-allocation process.
6. 6. Anticipation: Cognitive events, like anticipation, cause an increase in blood flow to the ACC. Some fMRI studies have shown that participants who received instructions regarding a particular task and engaged in preparation for said task displayed a rise in cerebral blood flow to the ACC, showing the effect of that area of the brain on anticipatory anxiety.
7. 7. Error detection: Conflict monitoring is an important function of the ACC that allows us to monitor or scan for incompatibilities in our information processing, which helps us recognize the circumstances most likely to lead to error. The anterior cingulate gyrus (a subregion of the ACC) allows us to analyze abnormalities in our own and others’ behavior during social interactions.
8. 8. Autonomic nervous system response: When the human brain is presented with stressors, the ACC activates, which plays a role in regulating blood pressure and heart rate.

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