Affiliations: [a] School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA
| [b] Department of Surgical Sciences, Section of Neurosurgery, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| [c] Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Antwerp, Edegem, Belgium
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Wing Ting To, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, 800 W. Campbell Rd., Richardson, Dallas, Texas 75080, USA. Tel.: +1 972 883 7275; E-mail: E-mail: wingting.to@utdallas.edu.
Abstract: Background: The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has been implicated in both cognitive and emotional processing, with cognitive information proposed to be processed through the dorsal/caudal ACC and emotional information through the rostral/ventral ACC. Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the role of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) in cognitive and emotional processing using a cognitive and emotional counting Stroop task in two patients in whom abnormalities in the dACC were identified and treated. Methods: Two patients performed the cognitive and emotional counting Stroop task before and after treatment to examine whether the dACC has a specific or more general processing function. Results: We observed an overall improvement in the emotional, cognitive, and neutral trials of the counting Stroop task after the intervention, indicating that the dACC is not a subregion of the ACC that only contributes to a specific domain. Conclusion: This study reveals that the dACC is not just a subregion of the ACC that contributes to a specific cognitive function, but is rather part of a salience network that influences general brain functioning, influencing cognitive as well as emotional processing.
