Faculty of Human Sciences, Shimane University, Japan; Center for Information and Neural Networks, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan.
Center for Information and Neural Networks, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan.
Neuroscience. 2022 Nov 1;503:28-44. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2022.09.001. Epub 2022 Sep 8.
Some studies have argued that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) is generally activated in response to aversive information, including pain, negative affect, and cognitive conflict. Other studies have claimed that the dACC has subdivisions, and each division has a specific function. By manipulating emotionally and cognitively aversive cues, the present study determined whether the dACC is generally responsive to aversiveness or it has subdivisions for specific forms of aversiveness. Conjunction functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analysis showed that emotionally and cognitively aversive cues activated the same portion of the dACC. When these cues were contiguously presented, the region demonstrated additive activity, further supporting the overlapping representation of the two different forms of aversiveness in the dACC. Additional effective connectivity analysis showed that the dACC was co-activated with different brain regions depending on the cue type, characterizing its behavioral control mechanism. Complementary multivariate analyses showed that the reaction time was negatively correlated with the activity of the dACC and that the activity of the dACC under the emotional cue was predicted by the individual state anxiety score but not under the cognitive cue. We also found that the superior part of the dACC was uniquely activated in response to cognitively aversive cues, partially supporting the functional segregation account. Collectively, our results provide evidence that the specific locus of the dACC is generally responsive to distinctive motivational information, whereas the other loci may have segregated functions. Discussion includes recent neurocomputational theories that seem to satisfactorily account for the present results.
一些研究认为，背侧前扣带皮层（dACC）通常对包括疼痛、负面情绪和认知冲突在内的厌恶信息做出反应。其他研究则声称 dACC 有细分区域，每个区域都有特定的功能。通过操纵情感和认知上的厌恶线索，本研究确定 dACC 是否对厌恶感有普遍反应，或者它是否对特定形式的厌恶感有细分区域。联合功能磁共振成像（fMRI）分析表明，情感和认知上的厌恶线索激活了 dACC 的同一部分。当这些线索连续呈现时，该区域表现出加性活动，进一步支持 dACC 对两种不同形式的厌恶感的重叠表示。额外的有效连接分析表明，dACC 根据线索类型与不同的脑区共同激活，其特征是其行为控制机制。补充的多元分析表明，反应时间与 dACC 的活动呈负相关，并且情绪线索下的 dACC 活动可由个体状态焦虑得分预测，但在认知线索下则不能。我们还发现，dACC 的上半部分对认知上的厌恶线索有独特的激活，部分支持功能分离假说。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，dACC 的特定部位通常对不同的动机信息有反应，而其他部位可能具有分离的功能。讨论包括最近的神经计算理论，这些理论似乎可以令人满意地解释当前的结果。
