Action sets and decisions in the medial frontal cortex

Neural dynamics of error processing in medial frontal cortex

“…Furthermore, the present data argue against a unique cognitive contribution of the vast expanse of cerebral cortex labeled Fmedial frontal cortex_, confirming and detailing the functional heterogeneity of different anatomical portions of this region (Nachev et al, 2005;Rushworth et al, 2004). While the RCZa is activated in response to the first signal that an error has occurred, independent of the source of this information, pre-SMA shows response-related effects over and above learning-dependent modulations of activity on both correct and incorrect trials.…”

“…This area is suggested to correspond to the monkey rostral cingulate motor area (Picard and Strick, 1996) and is situated in what Bush et al (2000) described as the Fcognitive_ division of the anterior cingulate cortex. We also consider a neighboring portion of the superior frontal gyrus, namely the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), given its reported role in performance monitoring and action selection (Fiehler et al, 2004;Rushworth et al, 2004;Shima et al, 1996;Ullsperger and Von Cramon, 2001). For each hemisphere, we created two objectively defined spherical volumes of interest (VOIs, Fig.…”

“…Rather than attributing a single role to this vast cortical expanse, recent studies have started to associate different functions to the different anatomical structures that lay within the medial frontal cortex (Picard and Strick, 2001;Rushworth et al, 2004). In this context, an anterior portion of the cingulate cortex, the rostral cingulate zone anterior (RCZa), has been specifically associated with processing of error information and selecting appropriate behavioral adjustments (Holroyd and Coles, 2002;Rushworth et al, 2004;Fiehler et al, 2004).…”

Conflict monitoring and anterior cingulate cortex: an update

“…This lies within Brodmann's areas 24 and 32, in a region also referred to as the anterior rostral cingulate zone [47]. In some recent work [12,[49][50][51][52], it has been suggested that the relevant activations might instead lie more dorsally, within the pre-supplementary motor area. One limitation shared by the relevant studies is that, given their design, comparisons between conditions could reflect differences in strategy or control state rather than differences in conflict, either because stimulus presentation was blocked, or because (as in [50]) different portions of the reaction-time distribution were considered for different trial types.…”

“…It has been proposed, further, that the overall function of the ACC might involve the use of outcome, and particularly reward-related, information to guide action selection [45,[72][73][74]. Rushworth and colleagues [49] suggest that the ACC guides action selection based on a cost-benefit analysis, integrating information about past action outcomes. A particularly interesting suggestion is that this cost-benefit analysis might take into account the effort associated with candidate actions [75].…”