A tripartite view of the posterior cingulate cortex

• Published in: Nature reviews. Neuroscience Vol. 24; no. 3; pp. 173 - 189
• Main Authors: Foster, Brett L., Koslov, Seth R., Aponik-Gremillion, Lyndsey, Monko, Megan E., Hayden, Benjamin Y., Heilbronner, Sarah R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.03.2023; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/378/1595/2618; 631/378/2649/2150; Animal cognition; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Animals; Behavioral Sciences; Biological Techniques; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cerebral cortex; Cerebral Cortex - physiology; Cognition - physiology; Cognitive ability; Computational neuroscience; Cortex (cingulate); Gyrus Cinguli - physiology; Humans; Information processing; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Memory; Neurobiology; Neurosciences; Perspective
• ISSN: 1471-003X; 1471-0048; 1471-0048; 1469-3178
• DOI: 10.1038/s41583-022-00661-x

The posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) is one of the least understood regions of the cerebral cortex. By contrast, the anterior cingulate cortex has been the subject of intensive investigation in humans and model animal systems, leading to detailed behavioural and computational theoretical accounts of its function. The time is right for similar progress to be made in the PCC given its unique anatomical and physiological properties and demonstrably important contributions to higher cognitive functions and brain diseases. Here, we describe recent progress in understanding the PCC, with a focus on convergent findings across species and techniques that lay a foundation for establishing a formal theoretical account of its functions. Based on this converging evidence, we propose that the broader PCC region contains three major subregions — the dorsal PCC, ventral PCC and retrosplenial cortex — that respectively support the integration of executive, mnemonic and spatial processing systems. This tripartite subregional view reconciles inconsistencies in prior unitary theories of PCC function and offers promising new avenues for progress. In this Perspective article, Foster and colleagues describe converging evidence supporting an anatomical and functional division of the posterior cingulate cortex into three subregions that contribute to different cognitive tasks.