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

前扣带皮层（ACC）是一个大脑区域，对调节我们的思维和行为至关重要。然而，它在认知中的确切作用却备受争议。为了调和关于其功能的相互冲突的观点，我和我的同事最近提出了一个理论，认为ACC支持针对特定目标的扩展的、特定于上下文的行为序列的选择和执行。虽然过去的ACC研究狭隘地关注ACC在调节实验室环境中观察到的行为瞬间变化中的作用，比如在犯错误后放慢速度，但我们认为ACC可能更关心与许多日常活动相关的更大的控制问题，比如决定是否慢跑上一座陡峭的山。在这里，我建议通过进行几次电生理（即，“脑波”）在健康的志愿者身上进行实验，并通过计算建模进一步发展理论。这一努力的成功将大大推进我们对认知控制神经机制的理解。

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.