Anterior Cingulate

Abstract

As monkeys perform schedules containing several trials with a visual cue in dicating reward proximity, their error rates decrease as the number of rema ining trials decreases, suggesting that their motivation and/or reward expe ctancy increases as the reward approaches. About one-third of single neuron s recorded in the anterior cingulate cortex of monkeys during these reward schedules had responses that progressively changed strength with reward exp ectancy, an effect that disappeared when the cue was random. Alterations of this progression could be the basis for the changes from normal that are r eported in anterior cingulate population activity for obsessive-compulsive disorder and drug abuse, conditions characterized by disturbances in reward expectancy.