Scientific Understanding of Consciousness
Consciousness as an Emergent Property of Thalamocortical Activity

Cingulate Cortex

 

 

The cingulate cortex consists of four major regions: (1) posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), (2) retrosplenial cortex (RSC), (3) midcingulate cortex (MCC), (4) anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). (Vogt; Cingulate Neurobiology, 96)

Areas in the cingulate gyrus are involved in the regulation and control of motor behavior. (Vogt; Cingulate Neurobiology, 130)

The midcingulate cortex has a role in response initiation and maintaining a state of motor readiness. (Vogt; Cingulate Neurobiology, 135)

The MCC has a role in executive control of behavior, together with the lateral prefrontal cortex. (Vogt; Cingulate Neurobiology, 136)

Pivotal to the role of cingulate cortex in motor functions are the two cingulate motor areas (CMA). (Vogt; Cingulate Neurobiology, 114)

CMAs are involved in more than skeletomotor functions    and include cognitive processes involved in action reinforcement,    anticipation,    and relating expectations to the outcomes. (Vogt; Cingulate Neurobiology, 136)

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is a heterogeneous structure involved in the processing of both cognitive and emotional information. (Vogt; Cingulate Neurobiology, 207)

The amygdala is a critical structure in the processing of emotional information. (Vogt; Cingulate Neurobiology, 207)

The ACC has output projections to the periaqueductal gray in the midbrain, which is implicated in the descending control of pain processing, to the nucleus of the solitary tract and dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus through which autonomic effects can be elicited, and to the ventral striatum and caudate nucleus through which behavioral responses can be produced. (Vogt; Cingulate Neurobiology, 192)

Cinguloamygdala processing has a role in the interpretation of emotional information, especially when the predictive value of biologically relevant stimuli is ambiguous. (Vogt; Cingulate Neurobiology, 207)

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is part of a broad swath of orbitofrontal, insular, and temporal pole cortex that regulates visceral functions. (Vogt; Cingulate Neurobiology, 220)

Visceral input to the cingulate gyrus is associated mainly with nociception. (Vogt; Cingulate Neurobiology, 225)

Efferent cingulate projections regulate autonomic output. (Vogt; Cingulate Neurobiology, 226)

Cingulate cortex appears to have six roles in visceral function. (Vogt; Cingulate Neurobiology, 231)

Selection among internally represented "goals" in the process of determining a course of action appears to result from decisions made in cingulate cortex based on information flow between connected structures. (Vogt; Cingulate Neurobiology, 237)