The role of anterior cingulate cortex in motivating and controlling effortful behaviors

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Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is a brain area that is crucial to regulating how we think and act. Yet its precise role in cognition is hotly debated. To reconcile conflicting views about its function, my colleagues and I have recently proposed a theory that holds that ACC supports the selection and execution of extended, context-specific sequences of behavior directed toward particular goals. Whereas past ACC research focused narrowly on the role of ACC in regulating moment-to-moment changes in behavior as observed in laboratory settings, like slowing down after making an error, we argued that the ACC may be more concerned with larger control problems associated with many everyday activities, like deciding whether or not to jog up a steep mountain. Here I propose to test this theory by conducting several electrophysiological (i.e., “brainwave”) experiments with healthy human volunteers, and to develop the theory further with computational modelling. Success in this endeavour would substantially advance our understanding of the neural mechanisms of cognitive control.