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Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) carries a wealth of value-related information necessary for regulating behavioral flexibility and persistence. It signals error and reward events informing decisions about switching or staying with current behavior. During decision-making, it encodes the average value of exploring alternative choices (search value), even after controlling for response selection difficulty, and during learning, it encodes the degree to which internal models of the environment and current task must be updated. dACC value signals are derived in part from the history of recent reward integrated simultaneously over multiple time scales, thereby enabling comparison of experience over the recent and extended past. Such ACC signals may instigate attentionally demanding and difficult processes such as behavioral change via interactions with prefrontal cortex. However, the signal in dACC that instigates behavioral change need not itself be a conflict or difficulty signal.

Original publication

DOI

10.1038/nn.4382

Type

Journal article

Journal

Nat Neurosci

Publication Date

27/09/2016

Volume

19

Pages

1280 - 1285

Keywords

Animals, Attention, Choice Behavior, Decision Making, Gyrus Cinguli, Humans, Learning, Neurons, Prefrontal Cortex, Reward