Skip Navigation


Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on July 6, 2004
Cerebral Cortex 2005 15(2):229-237; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhh125
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
15/2/229    most recent
bhh125v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (31)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Weissman, D.H.
Right arrow Articles by Woldorff, M.G.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Weissman, D.H.
Right arrow Articles by Woldorff, M.G.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Cerebral Cortex V 15 N 2 © Oxford University Press 2005; all rights reserved

Article

Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex Resolves Conflict from Distracting Stimuli by Boosting Attention toward Relevant Events

D.H. Weissman, A. Gopalakrishnan, C.J. Hazlett and M.G. Woldorff

Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA

In everyday life, we often focus greater attention on behaviorally relevant stimuli to limit the processing of distracting events. For example, when distracting voices intrude upon a conversation at a noisy social gathering, we concentrate more attention on the speaker of interest to better comprehend his or her speech. In the present study, we investigated whether dorsal/caudal regions of the anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), thought to make a major contribution to cognitive control, boost attentional resources toward behaviorally relevant stimuli as a means for limiting the processing of distracting events. Sixteen healthy participants performed a cued global/local selective attention task while brain activity was recorded with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. Consistent with our hypotheses, greater dACC activity during distracting events predicted reduced behavioral measures of interference from those same events. dACC activity also differed for cues to attend to global versus local features of upcoming visual objects, further indicating a role in directing attention toward task-relevant stimuli. Our findings indicate a role for dACC in focusing attention on behaviorally relevant stimuli, especially when the achievement of our behavioral goals is threatened by distracting events.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Cereb CortexHome page
J. M. Orr and D. H. Weissman
Anterior Cingulate Cortex Makes 2 Contributions to Minimizing Distraction
Cereb Cortex, July 24, 2008; (2008) bhn119v1.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
E. Aarts, A. Roelofs, and M. van Turennout
Anticipatory Activity in Anterior Cingulate Cortex Can Be Independent of Conflict and Error Likelihood
J. Neurosci., April 30, 2008; 28(18): 4671 - 4678.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Cogn. Neurosci.Home page
V. M. Goghari and A. W. MacDonald III
Effects of varying the experimental design of a cognitive control paradigm on behavioral and functional imaging outcome measures.
J. Cogn. Neurosci., January 1, 2008; 20(1): 20 - 35.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
N. U. F. Dosenbach, D. A. Fair, F. M. Miezin, A. L. Cohen, K. K. Wenger, R. A. T. Dosenbach, M. D. Fox, A. Z. Snyder, J. L. Vincent, M. E. Raichle, et al.
Distinct brain networks for adaptive and stable task control in humans
PNAS, June 26, 2007; 104(26): 11073 - 11078.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 NeurologyHome page
M. P. Alexander, D. T. Stuss, T. Picton, T. Shallice, and S. Gillingham
Regional frontal injuries cause distinct impairments in cognitive control
Neurology, May 1, 2007; 68(18): 1515 - 1523.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Cereb CortexHome page
M. S. Fleck, S. M. Daselaar, I. G. Dobbins, and R. Cabeza
Role of Prefrontal and Anterior Cingulate Regions in Decision-Making Processes Shared by Memory and Nonmemory Tasks
Cereb Cortex, November 1, 2006; 16(11): 1623 - 1630.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.