Anterior cingulate cortex

Jump to navigationJump to search

Anterior cingulate cortex
Medial surface of left cerebral hemisphere, with anterior cingulate highlighted
Medial surface of right hemisphere, with Brodmann's areas numbered
Details
Identifiers
Latin	Cortex cingularis anterior
NeuroNames	161
NeuroLex ID	birnlex_936
Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy [edit on Wikidata]

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is the frontal part of the cingulate cortex that resembles a "collar" surrounding the frontal part of the corpus callosum. It consists of Brodmann areas 24, 32, and 33.

It appears to play a role in a wide variety of autonomic functions, such as regulating blood pressure and heart rate.^{[citation needed]}

It is also involved in certain higher-level functions, such as attention allocation,^[1] reward anticipation, decision-making,^[2] ethics and morality,^[3] impulse control (e.g. performance monitoring and error detection),^[4] and emotion.^[5][6]

Sagittal MRI slice with highlighting indicating location of the anterior cingulate cortex

Contents

• 1Anatomy
• 2Tasks
• 3Functions
  • 3.1Error detection and conflict monitoring
  • 3.2Social evaluation
  • 3.3Reward-based learning theory
  • 3.4Role in consciousness
  • 3.5Role in registering pain
• 4Pathology
• 5Additional images
• 6See also
• 7References

Anatomy[edit]

Anterior cingulate gyrus of left cerebral hemisphere, shown in red

The anterior cingulate cortex can be divided anatomically based on cognitive (dorsal), and emotional (ventral) components.^[7] The dorsal part of the ACC is connected with the prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex, as well as the motor system and the frontal