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PMID: 18189009 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Review

Conflict monitoring and decision making: reconciling two perspectives on anterior cingulate function.

Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience ·Vol. 7 ·No. 4 ·2007-12-00 ·Pages 356-66

Botvinick MM

Abstract

According to one influential account, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) serves to monitor for conflicts in information processing. According to another influential account, the ACC monitors action outcomes and guides decision making. Both of these perspectives are supported by an abundance of data, making it untenable to reject one view in favor of the other. Instead, the apparent challenge is to discover how the two perspectives might fit together within a larger account. In the present article, we consider the prospects for such a reconciliation. Juxtaposing the conflict-monitoring and decision-making accounts suggests an extension of the conflict-monitoring theory, by which conflict would act as a teaching signal driving a form of avoidance learning. The effect of this mechanism would be to bias behavioral decision making toward cognitively efficient tasks and strategies. We discuss evidence favoring this proposal and present an initial computational model, which lays the foundation for further development.

MeSH Terms
Animals Avoidance Learning/physiology Cognition/physiology Conflict, Psychological Decision Making/physiology Humans Prefrontal Cortex/physiology Self Concept
Authors & Affiliations
1 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Botvinick Mattew M
Psychology Department, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA. matthewb@princeton.edu
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Article Info
Journal
Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience
Abbr.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci
ISSN
1530-7026
DOI
10.3758/cabn.7.4.356
Email
matthewb@princeton.edu
Published
2007-12-00
Pages
356-66
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
101083946
Subset
IM
Grants
NIMH NIH HHS · MH062196 · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.3758/cabn.7.4.356 View journal details
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