Deficits in visual cognition and attention following bilateral anterior cingulotomy

• Published in: Neuropsychologia Vol. 39; no. 3; pp. 219 - 230
• Main Authors: Ochsner, Kevin N, Kosslyn, Stephen M, Cosgrove, G.Rees, Cassem, Edwin H, Price, Bruce H, Nierenberg, Andrew A, Rauch, Scott L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 2001; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Anterior cingulate; Attention; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition Disorders - etiology; Executive control; Female; Gyrus Cinguli - physiology; Gyrus Cinguli - surgery; Humans; Medical sciences; Mental imagery; Mental Processes; Neurosurgical treatment of psychiatric illness; Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Visual Perception; Mental imagery; Anterior cingulate; Neurosurgical treatment of psychiatric illness; Executive control; Attention; Human; Nervous system diseases; Visual imagery; Cognitive disorder; Vision disorder; Sequela; Cerebral disorder; Treatment; Cingulate cortex; Surgery; Central nervous system disease; Visual attention; Cognitive control
• ISSN: 0028-3932; 1873-3514
• DOI: 10.1016/S0028-3932(00)00114-7

A series of eight tests of visual cognitive abilities was used to examine pre- to post-operative performance changes in a patient receiving bilateral anterior cingulotomy. Compared with a set of eight matched control participants, post-operatively, the patient exhibited deficits in (a) the ability to sequence novel cognitive operations required to generate multipart images or rotate perceptual stimuli; (b) the ability to search for, select, and compare images of objects when the instructions did not specify precisely which objects should be visualized; and, (c) the ability to select a controlled and unpracticed response over an automatic one. Other imagery and cognitive tasks were not affected. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that anterior cingulate cortex is a component of an executive control system. One of the anterior cingulate's roles may be to monitor on-line processing and signal the motivational significance of current actions or cognitions.