The Role of Anterior Cingulate Cortex in the Affective Evaluation of Conflict

Abstract

An influential theory of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) function argues that this brain region plays a crucial role in the affective evaluation of performance monitoring and control demands. Specifically, control-demanding processes such as response conflict, are thought to be registered as aversive signals by the ACC, which in turn triggers processing adjustments to support avoidance-learning. In support of conflict being treated as an aversive event, recent behavioural studies demonstrated that incongruent (i.e., conflict-inducing) relative to congruent stimuli can speed up subsequent negative relative to positive affective picture processing. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate directly whether ACC activity in response to negative versus positive pictures is modulated by preceding control demands, consisting of conflict and task-switching conditions. The results show that negative relative to positive pictures elicited higher ACC activation following congruent relative to incongruent trials, suggesting that the ACC’s response to negative (positive) pictures was indeed affectively primed by incongruent (congruent) trials. Interestingly, this pattern of results was observed on task repetitions, but disappeared on task alternations. Our findings support the proposal that conflict induces negative affect, and are the first to show that this affective signal is reflected in ACC activation.

The emotive nature of conflict monitoring in the medial prefrontal cortex

“…In one study, the amplitude of the ERN was associated with the extent to which mistakes prime the processing of negative, but not positive, words (Aarts et al, 2013). In a conceptually similar fMRI study, reduced aMCC response to negative images occured after conflicting Stroop trials, while aMCC responses to positive images was reduced after congruent trials (Braem et al, 2016). These findings suggest repetition suppressionwhere the presentation of a given stimulus category (e.g., cognitive conflict) leads to reduced neural reactivity to the subsequent presentation of a similar stimulus (e.g., negative images).…”

When conflict influences liking: The case of the Stroop task

“…Interestingly, this same area also becomes active when errors and other aversive signals are observed [22][23][24]. Thus, the ACC responds similarly to cognitive conflict and negative affect, possibly registering both as aversive signals [25][26]. …”

How non-veridical perception drives actions in healthy humans - Evidence from Synaesthesia

“…The source localization analysis suggests that these modulations of the N2 are associated with the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). This region, and the medial frontal cortex in general plays a major role for inhibitory control (Huster et al, 2013); and has been suggested to orchestrate the connection of perception and action (Cavanagh and Frank, 2014) due to its hub-like structural and functional connection to sensory and motor areas (Braem et al, 2017;Bush et al, 2000). Corroborating this, it has been shown that the N2 reflects a concomitant coding of stimulus and response-related aspects likely, mediating the binding between stimulus and response features (Chmielewski et al, 2018;Folstein and Van Petten, 2008).…”