title: Anterior cingulate activity and level of cognitive conflict: explicit comparisons.
abstract: The role of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in attention is a matter of debate. One hypothesis suggests that its role is to monitor response-level conflict, but explicit evidence is somewhat lacking. In this study, the activation of ACC was compared in (a) color and number standard Stroop tasks in which response preparation and interference shared modality (response-level conflict) and (b) color and number matching Stroop tasks in which response preparation and interference did not share modality (non-response-level conflict). In the congruent conditions, there was no effect of task type. In the interference conditions, anterior cingulate activity in the matching tasks was less than that in the standard tasks. These results support the hypothesis that ACC specifically mediates generalized modality-independent selection processes invoked by response competition.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, BRK, United Kingdom. r.l.c.mitchell@rdg.ac.uk
authors.forename: Rachel L C
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011340:Problem Solving; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen