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Fifteen years ago, an influential model proposed that the human dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) detects conflict and induces adaptive control of behavior. Over the years support for this model has been mixed, in particular due to divergent findings in human versus nonhuman primates. We here review recent findings that suggest greater commonalities across species. These include equivalent behavioral consequences of conflict and similar neuronal signals in the dACC, but also a common failure of dACC lesions to reliably abolish conflict-driven behavior. We conclude that conflict might be one among many drivers of adjustments in executive control and that the ACC might be just one component of overlapping distributed systems involved in context-dependent learning and behavioral control.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.tins.2016.11.001

Type

Journal article

Journal

Trends Neurosci

Publication Date

01/2017

Volume

40

Pages

15 - 27

Keywords

anterior cingulate cortex, conflict monitoring, executive control, nonhuman primate, prefrontal cortex, Animals, Conflict, Psychological, Executive Function, Gyrus Cinguli, Humans, Models, Neurological, Primates