title: Action initiation in the human dorsal anterior cingulate cortex.
abstract: The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) has previously been implicated in processes that influence action initiation. In humans however, there has been little direct evidence connecting dACC to the temporal onset of actions. We studied reactive behavior in patients undergoing therapeutic bilateral cingulotomy to determine the immediate effects of dACC ablation on action initiation. In a simple reaction task, three patients were instructed to respond to a specific visual cue with the movement of a joystick. Within minutes of dACC ablation, the frequency of false starts increased, where movements occurred prior to presentation of the visual cue. In a decision making task with three separate patients, the ablation effect on action initiation persisted even when action selection was intact. These findings suggest that human dACC influences action initiation, apart from its role in action selection.
authors: Neural Signal Processing Laboratory, Department of Radiology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America. ls2@nsplab.org
authors: Lakshminarayan
authors: L
authors: Srinivasan
authors: Wael F
authors: WF
authors: Asaad
authors: Daniel T
authors: DT
authors: Ginat
authors: John T
authors: JT
authors: Gale
authors: Darin D
authors: DD
authors: Dougherty
authors: Ziv M
authors: ZM
authors: Williams
authors: Terrence J
authors: TJ
authors: Sejnowski
authors: Emad N
authors: EN
authors: Eskandar
mesh_terms: D001519:Behavior; D001931:Brain Mapping; D017115:Catheter Ablation; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis