Electrophysiological measurements of anterior cingulate function.
Based on recent findings from various areas of brain research the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) within the prefrontal cortex is increasingly considered as a brain region activated during tasks requiring conflict-monitoring and allocation of attention. In the present study with event-related potentials (ERPs) the question has been addressed, whether the NoGo-condition of the Continuous Performance Test is associated with enough conflict-monitoring and allocation of attention in order to activate the ACC in healthy controls. Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (LORETA), a new three-dimensional source localization method, revealed significantly increased brain electrical activity during the NoGo-ERP as compared to the Go-ERP with its maximum located exactly within the ACC in four independent samples of healthy subjects. These results relate the conflict-monitoring requirements associated with inhibition of a prepared motor response (NoGo-condition) to a powerful brain electrical ACC-activity. This non-invasive, easy to perform and inexpensive electrophysiological measurement, therefore, provides a new method for the assessment of ACC-function in healthy subjects.
Fallgatter
A J
AJ
Laboratory of Psychiatric Neurophysiology, Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Würzburg, Federal Republic of Germany. afallgat@mail.uni-wuerzburg.de
Bartsch
A J
AJ
Herrmann
M J
MJ
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004056:Differential Threshold; D055590:Electromagnetic Phenomena; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values