Anterior cingulate cortex regulation of sympathetic activity.

Why the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is active in such a wide variety of cognitive and emotional tasks has become an important issue in recent research. In this issue of Brain , Critchley et al . (2003) report changes in heart rate in both cognitive and motor tasks related to the strength of activation in the ACC. They interpret their findings as supporting a view that the anterior cingulate is involved in the regulation of autonomic activity according to the current context of behavior. At the turn of the twentieth century, Broca used the term ‘limbic’ to describe the medial convolution that borders the corpus callosum of each hemisphere. Originally, this term was merely descriptive, implying no function. Later, Broca would ascribe olfactory functions to the limbic lobe, and this suggestion dominated teaching of functional neuroanatomy well into the mid‐twentieth century despite a persuasive proposal by Papez in 1937. Based upon the reciprocal connections of the cingulate cortex with the hypothalamus, Papez proposed that the cingulate cortex was involved in the subjective experience of emotions. In the 1940s and 1950s, evidence accumulated from animal as well as human studies of the ACC, which are well cited by Critchley et al . (2003). These studies demonstrated the involvement of the cingulate cortex in motor and …