Anterior cingulate cortex and response conflict: Effects of response modality and processing domain

Abstract

Studies of a variety of higher cognitive functions consistently activate a region of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), situated posterior to the genu and superior to the corpus callosum. However, it is not clear whether the same ACC region is activated for all response modalities (e.g. vocal and manual) and/or all processing domains (e.g. verbal and spatial). To explore this question, we used rapid event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging and a spatial Stroop task with conditions tapping both verbal and spatial processing. We also employed novel methods that allowed us to acquire the accuracy and reaction times of both manual and vocal responses. We found one large ACC region that demonstrated significant response conflict effects with both vocal and manual responses, and three ACC regions that demonstrated significant response conflict effects with both spatial and verbal processing. We did not find any ACC regions that demonstrated activity selective to either a specific response modality or processing domain. Thus, our results suggest that the same regions of ACC are responsive to conflict arising with both manual and vocal output and with both spatial and verbal processing.