title: Localized microstimulation of primate pregenual cingulate cortex  induces negative decision-making.
abstract: The pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC) has been implicated in human anxiety disorders and depression, but the circuit-level mechanisms underlying these disorders are unclear. In healthy individuals, the pACC is involved in cost-benefit evaluation. We developed a macaque version of an approach-avoidance decision task used to evaluate anxiety and depression in humans and, with multi-electrode recording and cortical microstimulation, we probed pACC function as monkeys performed this task. We found that the macaque pACC has an opponent process-like organization of neurons representing motivationally positive and negative subjective value. Spatial distribution of these two neuronal populations overlapped in the pACC, except in one subzone, where neurons with negative coding were more numerous. Notably, microstimulation in this subzone, but not elsewhere in the pACC, increased negative decision-making, and this negative biasing was blocked by anti-anxiety drug treatment. This cortical zone could be critical for regulating negative emotional valence and anxiety in decision-making.
authors.affiliation: McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Ken-ichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Amemori
authors.forename: Ann M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Graybiel
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003463:Cues; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D003975:Diazepam / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009474:Neurons / Q000145:classification / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D012201:Reward
chemical_list: D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents; D003975:Diazepam