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Science 13 February 2004:
Vol. 303. no. 5660, pp. 1023 - 1026
DOI: 10.1126/science.1089910
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Reports

Anterior Cingulate Conflict Monitoring and Adjustments in Control

John G. Kerns,1,2 Jonathan D. Cohen,2,3 Angus W. MacDonald, III,4 Raymond Y. Cho,2,3 V. Andrew Stenger,5 Cameron S. Carter2,6*

Conflict monitoring by the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has been posited to signal a need for greater cognitive control, producing neural and behavioral adjustments. However, the very occurrence of behavioral adjustments after conflict has been questioned, along with suggestions that there is no direct evidence of ACC conflict-related activity predicting subsequent neural or behavioral adjustments in control. Using the Stroop color-naming task and controlling for repetition effects, we demonstrate that ACC conflict-related activity predicts both greater prefrontal cortex activity and adjustments in behavior, supporting a role of ACC conflict monitoring in the engagement of cognitive control.

1 Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
2 Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
3 Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
4 Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
5 Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
6 Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of California at Davis, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: cameron.carter{at}ucdmc.ucdavis.edu.

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