All parts of the brain › Anterior cingulate cortex

Where is the anterior cingulate cortex?

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is the front part of the cingulate cortex, on the inner face of each hemisphere: it curves like a collar around the front of the corpus callosum. It is made up of Brodmann areas 24, 32 and 33. [1]

The 3D brain needs JavaScript. The text below still says where the anterior cingulate cortex is and what it does.

Lit: the whole cingulate gyrus, on both sides.

Slice

Opens cut down the midline and seen from the left, so you look at the inner face of the right hemisphere: the lit cingulate gyrus arches over the corpus callosum from front to back; the anterior cingulate cortex is its front part, the stretch that curves round the front end of the corpus callosum. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom, tap any part to name it; .

Lit: the whole cingulate gyrus, on both sides. The area is part of this gyrus; its exact border is not drawn. It is the front part of the cingulate gyrus, around the front end of the corpus callosum; the posterior cingulate cortex is the back part. The model draws the cingulate gyrus as one shape from front to back, so the whole gyrus is lit, its back part included. [2][3]

Held by the cingulate gyrus — see the whole gyrus on its own page.

Where it is

The cingulate cortex is divided into Brodmann areas 23, 24, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32 and 33: the anterior cingulate cortex is areas 24, 32 and 33, the posterior cingulate cortex areas 23 and 31. [2]
In front and below it continues into the subgenual area (Brodmann area 25), which lies below the knee (genu) of the corpus callosum. [2]
Area 32 forms an outer arc around the anterior cingulate gyrus; the cingulate sulcus roughly marks its inner edge, and toward the front it reaches almost to the margin of the frontal lobe. [4]
It can be divided further into the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex, near the genu, and the midcingulate cortex behind it. [2]
It is unusually rich in spindle cells (von Economo neurons), a cell type found only in humans and other primates, whales and dolphins, and elephants. [1]

What it does

It is involved in higher-level functions such as allocating attention, anticipating reward, decision-making, impulse control (monitoring performance and detecting errors) and emotion. [1]
A worked example: in the Stroop task, naming the ink colour of the word RED printed in blue is slow because reading gets in the way. That conflict activates it, and the stronger the competition between responses, the stronger the activation. [1]
A small electrical signal recorded a split second after a mistake, the error-related negativity, is generated in it; the signal is larger when the outcome is further from what was expected. [1]
Its dorsal (upper) part seems to play a key role in reward-based decision-making and learning, while its rostral (front) part is tied more to the emotional response to errors. [1]
In functional MRI its signal, typically in the back of area 24, rises with pain intensity; it seems to carry the emotional reaction to pain rather than the sensing of the pain itself. [1]
It is especially involved when a task takes effort, as in early learning and problem-solving. [1]

Connections

Its dorsal part connects with the prefrontal and parietal cortex, the motor system and the frontal eye fields, which lets it assign control to other areas. [1]
Its ventral part connects with the amygdala, nucleus accumbens, hypothalamus, hippocampus and anterior insula, and weighs how emotionally and motivationally important something is. [1]
Most of its incoming fibres come from the intralaminar and midline nuclei of the thalamus; it sends fibres to the thalamus’s anterior nucleus and, through the cingulum, to other limbic areas. [2]
With the anterior insula, its dorsal part anchors the salience network, which picks out what stands out. [5]

Other names

Anterior cingulate cortex, ACC, or simply the anterior cingulate; its upper part is called the dorsal ACC (dACC). [1]
Brodmann areas 24, 32 and 33; area 32 is also called the dorsal anterior cingulate area. [1][4]

Size

The model has no shape for the anterior cingulate cortex itself, so it is not measured here. The whole left cingulate gyrus that holds it measures about 111 mm front to back, 67 mm top to bottom and 28 mm side to side on this model (the box it fits in, not its volume). [3]

Sources

Facts describe anatomy and normal function only. The 3D model is the adult male BodyParts3D brain (credits and licence); real brains vary in size and shape, so its measurements describe one model, not anyone’s brain.