The anterior cingulate cortex: an integrative hub for human socially-driven interactions

Abstract

The activity of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has been related to decision-making (Gehring and Willoughby, 2002; Sanfey et al., 2003; Mulert et al., 2008), socially-driven interactions (Sanfey et al., 2003; Rigoni et al., 2010; Etkin et al., 2011), and empathy-related responses (van Veen and Carter, 2002; Gu et al., 2010; Lamm et al., 2011). We present a perspective of how to interpret the evidence of ACC involvement in these three processes, propose an ACC integrative function, and provide a methodological pathway to study decision making, empathy, and social interaction in a combined experimental approach.