scholarly journals Macaque anterior cingulate cortex deactivation impairs performance and alters lateral prefrontal oscillatory activities in a rule-switching task

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liya Ma ◽  
Jason L. Chan ◽  
Kevin Johnston ◽  
Stephen G. Lomber ◽  
Stefan Everling
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Phase Amplitude ◽  
Switching Task

SUMMARYIn primates, both the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) are key regions of the frontoparietal cognitive control network. To study the role of the dACC and its communication with the dlPFC in cognitive control, we recorded the local field potentials from the dlPFC before and during the reversible deactivation of the dACC, in macaque monkeys engaging in uncued switches between two stimulus-response rules. Cryogenic dACC deactivation impaired response accuracy during rule-maintenance, but not rule-switching, which coincided with a reduction in the correct-error difference in dlPFC beta activities specifically during maintenance of the more challenging rule. During both rule switching and maintenance, dACC deactivation prolonged the animals’ reaction time and reduced task-related theta/alpha activities in the dlPFC; it also weakened dlPFC theta-gamma phase-amplitude modulation. Thus, the dACC and its interaction with the dlPFC plays a critical role in the maintenance of a new, challenging rule.

scholarly journals Testing competing models of dorsal anterior cingulate

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eliana Vassena ◽  
James Deraeve ◽  
William H. Alexander
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Empirical Testing ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Competing Models ◽  
Empirical Tests

Recent theories have attempted to provide unifying accounts of dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), a region routinely observed in studies of cognitive control and decision-making. Despite the proliferation of frameworks, rigorous empirical testing has lagged behind theory. Here we test competing predictions of three accounts of dACC using a simple value-based decision-making task. We find that the Predicted Response-Outcome model provides an integrative and parsimonious account of our results. Our results highlight the need for increased emphasis on empirical tests of theoretical frameworks.

scholarly journals The Neural Basis of Predictive Pursuit

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seng Bum Michael Yoo ◽  
Jiaxin Cindy Tu ◽  
Steven T. Piantadosi ◽  
Benjamin Yost Hayden
Keyword(s):  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Explicit Representation ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
The Brain

ABSTRACTIt remains unclear how and to what extent non-human animals make demanding on-the-fly predictions during pursuit. We studied this problem in a novel laboratory pursuit task that incentivizes prediction of future prey positions. We trained three macaques to perform joystick-controlled pursuit of prey that followed intelligent escape algorithms. Subjects reliably aimed towards the prey’s likely future positions, indicating that they generate internal predictions and use those predictions to guide behavior. We then developed a generative model that explains real-time pursuit trajectories and showed that our subjects use prey position, velocity, and acceleration to make predictions. We identified neurons in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) whose responses track these three variables. These neurons multiplexed prediction-related variables with a distinct and explicit representation of the prey’s future position. Our results provide a clear demonstration that the brain can explicitly represent future predictions and highlight the critical role of anterior cingulate cortex for future-oriented cognition.One-sentence summaryIn a dynamic pursuit environment, monkeys actively predict future prey positions and dACC neurons encode these future positions.

scholarly journals Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex Encodes the Integrated Incentive Motivational Value of Cognitive Task Performance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie M. Yee ◽  
Jennifer L. Crawford ◽  
Bidhan Lamichhane ◽  
Todd S. Braver
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Monetary Incentives ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Task Performance ◽  
The Brain

AbstractHumans can seamlessly combine value signals from diverse motivational incentives, yet it is not well-understood how these signals are “bundled” in the brain to modulate cognitive control. The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) is theorized to integrate motivational value dimensions in the service of goal-directed action, though this hypothesis has yet to receive rigorous confirmation. In the present study, we examined the role of human dACC in motivational incentive integration. Healthy young adult men and women were scanned with fMRI while engaged in an experimental paradigm that quantifies the combined effects of liquid (e.g., juice, neutral, saltwater) and monetary incentives on cognitive task performance. Monetary incentives modulated trial-by-trial dACC activation, whereas block-related effects of liquid incentives on dACC activity were observed. When bundled together, incentive-related dACC modulation predicted fluctuations in both cognitive performance and self-report motivation ratings. Statistical mediation analyses suggest that dACC encoded the incentives in terms of their integrated subjective motivational value, and that this value signal was most proximally associated with task performance. Finally, we confirmed that these incentive integration effects were selectively present in dACC. Together, the results support an account in which dACC integrates motivational signals to compute the expected value of goal-directed cognitive control.Significance StatementHow are primary and secondary incentives integrated in the brain to influence goal-directed behavior? Using an innovative experimental fMRI paradigm that combines motivational incentives that have historically been studied independently between species (e.g., monetary rewards for humans, food rewards for animals), we examine the relationship between incentive motivational value and cognitive control allocation. We find evidence that the integrated incentive motivational value of combined incentives is encoded in human dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). Further, self-reported motivational shifts mediated the effects of incentive-modulated dACC activity on task performance, revealing convergence in how self-reported and experimentally-induced motivation are encoded in the human brain. Our findings may inform future translational studies examining affective/motivational and cognitive impairments in psychopathology (e.g., anxiety, depression, addiction).

scholarly journals Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Alters Conflict and Emotional Processing, Physiology, and Performance I: Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex Targeting

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Fini ◽  
William J. Tyler
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Focused Ultrasound ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Emotional Attention ◽  
Transcranial Focused Ultrasound

ABSTRACTThe dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) operates as an integrator of bottom-up and top-down signals and is implicated in both cognitive control and emotional processing. The dACC is believed to be causally involved in switching between attention networks, and previous work has linked it to cognitive performance, concentration, relaxation, and emotional distraction. The present study was designed to evaluate the feasibility of influencing default mode network (DMN) activity and emotional attention by targeting and modulating the dACC with transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS). Subjects were divided into two groups, one receiving MR-neuronavigated tFUS to the dACC and the other an identical, but inactive tFUS sham. Subjects performed a modified version of the Erikson flanker paradigm using fear and neutral faces as emotional background distractors. Our observations demonstrate that tFUS can be targeted to the human dACC to produce effects consistent with those expected from relaxed contention, including significantly reduced reaction time slowing due to emotional distractors, and an increase in parasympathetic markers of the HRV. These results suggest that tFUS altered emotional processing and enhanced sustained attention, perhaps by facilitating reduced attentional engagement with emotional distractors and reduced need for attention switching evidenced by significant effects on event related potentials (ERPs), reduced alpha suppression, and modulation of delta and theta EEG activity. We conclude that the dACC represents a viable neuroanatomical target for tFUS in order to modulate DMN activity, including emotional attention, conflict resolution, and cognitive control. These effects of dACC-targeted tFUS may prove useful for treating certain mental health disorders known to involve perturbed DMN activity, such as depression and anxiety.

Effects of unilateral deactivations of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex on saccadic eye movements

2014 ◽  
Vol 111 (4) ◽  
pp. 787-803 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Koval ◽  
R. Matthew Hutchison ◽  
Stephen G. Lomber ◽  
Stefan Everling
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Single Neuron Recording

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) have both been implicated in the cognitive control of saccadic eye movements by single neuron recording studies in nonhuman primates and functional imaging studies in humans, but their relative roles remain unclear. Here, we reversibly deactivated either dlPFC or ACC subregions in macaque monkeys while the animals performed randomly interleaved pro- and antisaccades. In addition, we explored the whole-brain functional connectivity of these two regions by applying a seed-based resting-state functional MRI analysis in a separate cohort of monkeys. We found that unilateral dlPFC deactivation had stronger behavioral effects on saccades than unilateral ACC deactivation, and that the dlPFC displayed stronger functional connectivity with frontoparietal areas than the ACC. We suggest that the dlPFC plays a more prominent role in the preparation of pro- and antisaccades than the ACC.

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