Anterior cingulate activity during routine and non-routine sequential behaviors in macaques

Abstract

Anterior cingulate cortex is important in monitoring action for new challenges. We recorded neuron activity in the anterior cingulate sulcus of macaques while they performed a sequential problem-solving task. By trial and error, animals determined the correct sequence for touching three fixed spatial targets. After the sequence was repeated three times, we then changed the correct solution order, requiring a new search. Irrespective of component movements or their kinematics, task-related neurons encoded the serial order of the sequence. Neurons activated with sequence components (68%) differed in activity between search and repetition. Search-related activity occurred when behavioral flexibility was required and ended as soon as the animal accumulated enough information to infer the solution, but had not yet tested it. Repetition-related activity occurred in a regime of memory-based motor performance in which attention to action is less necessary.

Association between trait emotional awareness and dorsal anterior cingulate activity during emotion is arousal-dependent

“…This may be understood as a greater ability among more highly aware individuals to be cognizant of their own emotional reactions in the context of high arousal and to anticipate and evaluate the consequences of their actions in advance of their behavioral expression. This greater ability may be mediated at least in part by the dACC, consistent with Paus' view that the dorsal ACC is fundamentally involved in translating intentions into actions in the context of emotional arousal (Paus, 2000), and is consistent with the role of the dACC in mediating regulated rather than automatic, prepotent responses (Procyk et al, 2000). According to this view, the differences between high and low awareness individuals in the processing of emotional information, which may be particularly evident in the context of high arousal, could be related at least in part to their relative success or failure in recruiting the dACC (Lane et al, 1997b).…”

Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex: A role in reward-based decision making

“…Although not directly addressed here, dACC would be expected to play an important role in error processing (16,17) because single-unit recordings have confirmed the presence of error detecting cells in this region (24,26). Similarly, although competition monitoring and task difficulty cannot explain all of the data, they are factors that would be predicted to yield increased dACC activity, because diverse dACC cell types would be recruited by cognitively difficult tasks such as those requiring the resolution of competition.…”

“…Monkey single-unit data (24) and human fMRI data (19) clearly indicate that dACC responds well in advance of stimuli-a fact other theories cannot adequately incorporate. Also, the fact that monkey single-unit studies (24)(25)(26)(27) repeatedly show responses by different cells at different times (prestimulus, preresponse, peri-response, postresponse) presents a puzzle for alternative, unimodal theories. If dACC cells only responded to errors or rewards, then activity should not occur before the response (and certainly not before stimulus).…”

Event perception: A mind-brain perspective.

“…The ACC is sensitive to both sorts of error and may play a role in adaptively modulating behavior in response to prediction error (Botvinick, Braver, Barch, Carter, & Cohen, 2001). More specifically, different subpopulations within the ACC respond when a monkey is learning a new sequential structure than when it has discovered the sequence and is using the learned information to guide performance (Procyk, Tanaka, & Joseph, 2000). ACC and nearby regions have been proposed to underlie learning of sequential structure in simple motor tasks and in cognitive domains (Koechlin, Danek, Burnod, & Grafman, 2002).…”