Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on July 25, 2007
Cerebral Cortex 2008 18(4):796-805; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm125
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The Functional Integration of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex during Conflict Processing
1 Department of Psychiatry, 2 Department of Neuroscience, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029, USA, 3 Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA
Address correspondence to Jin Fan, PhD, Laboratory of Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1230, New York, NY 10029, USA. Email: Jin.Fan{at}mssm.edu.
Although functional activation of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) related to conflict processing has been studied extensively, the functional integration of the subdivisions of the ACC and other brain regions during conditions of conflict is still unclear. In this study, participants performed a task designed to elicit conflict processing by using flanker interference on target response while they were scanned using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. The physiological response of several brain regions in terms of an interaction between conflict processing and activity of the anterior rostral cingulate zone (RCZa) of the ACC, and the effective connectivity between this zone and other regions were examined using psychophysiological interaction analysis and dynamic causal modeling, respectively. There was significant integration of the RCZa with the caudal cingulate zone (CCZ) of the ACC and other brain regions such as the lateral prefrontal, primary, and supplementary motor areas above and beyond the main effect of conflict and baseline connectivity. The intrinsic connectivity from the RCZa to the CCZ was modulated by the context of conflict. These findings suggest that conflict processing is associated with the effective contribution of the RCZa to the neuronal activity of CCZ, as well as other cortical regions.
Key Words: anterior cingulate cortex conflict processing dynamic causal modeling connectivity psychophysiological interaction