Abstract
Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activation is commonly observed in studies of pain, executive control, conflict monitoring, and salience processing, making it difficult to interpret the dACC's specific psychological function. Using Neurosynth, an automated brainmapping database [of over 10,000 functional MRI (fMRI) studies], we performed quantitative reverse inference analyses to explore the best general psychological account of the dACC function P(Ψ process|dACC activity). Results clearly indicated that the best psychological description of dACC function was related to pain processing--not executive, conflict, or salience processing. We conclude by considering that physical pain may be an instance of a broader class of survival-relevant goals monitored by the dACC, in contrast to more arbitrary temporary goals, which may be monitored by the supplementary motor area.
Highlights
Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex activation is commonly observed in studies of pain, executive control, conflict monitoring, and salience processing, making it difficult to interpret the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC)’s specific psychological function
Of all the regions in the brain that have received heavy study, there may be no region with less consensus about its specific function than the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex
Strong forward inference to dACC has been shown in each domain mentioned above, which may be why some researchers have suggested that activity observed in the dACC cannot be reliably linked to any psychological process because, on the surface, it seems that many different psychological processes activate this region
Summary
82% chance that an activation came from a study with a particular psychological term. We wanted to explore this issue in an unbiased way across the dACC that would allow each psychological domain to show where there is more or less support for it as an appropriate psychological interpretation To perform this analysis, we extracted reverse inference statistics (Z-scores and posterior probabilities) across eight foci in the dACC for the terms “pain” (410 studies), “executive” (531 studies), “conflict” (246 studies), and “salience” (222 studies). A whole slew of such terms show little or no evidence of being likely candidates to explain the psychological bases of dACC activity Some of these functions might be instantiated in the SMA or preSMA, they do not seem to be reliably related to dACC activity in quantitative reverse inference analyses. Of the 21 terms we began with, only “pain,” “painful,” and “noxious” were reliable reverse inference candidates for most of the dACC (for more on affective versus sensory aspects of pain, see Supporting Information)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
