The research domain criteria framework: The case for anterior cingulate cortex
Abstract
The United States National Institute of Mental Health has recently promoted the Research Domain Criteria framework, which emphasizes the study of neurocognitive constructs that cut across different disorders. These constructs are said to express dimensionally across the population, giving rise to psychopathologies only in the extreme cases where that expression is maladaptive. Inspired by the RDoC framework, we propose that recent insights into the function of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a brain area said to be responsible for selecting and motivating extended behaviors, may elucidate the etiology of a diverse array of mental disorders. We argue that ACC function contributes to individual differences in personality traits related to reward sensitivity and persistence, and propose that the maladaptive expression of these traits contributes to multiple mental and neurological disorders. Our discussion is organized around a computational framework that relates the reward processing and control functions of ACC, as revealed by two electrophysiological phenomena called the reward positivity and frontal midline theta oscillations, to a distributed neural system underlying cognitive control.
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Studies have consistently observed aMCC dysfunction in depressed individuals.
“have consistently observed aMCC dysfunction in depressed individuals (Holroyd & Umemoto, 2016; Vogt, 2016).”
From Motivation in the Service of Allostasis: The Role of Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex (2019) · cites this paper as Holroyd & Umemoto, 2016
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“We do not discuss psychiatric disorders, where there is also a body of work that examines the structural or functional basis of apathy (Foussias et al., 2014; Holroyd and Umemoto, 2016; Treadway and Zald, 2011).”
BackgroundComputational Models of Anterior Cingulate Cortex: At the Crossroads between Prediction and Effort
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Motivation in the Service of Allostasis: The Role of Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex
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- Authors
- Holroyd, C. B., & Umemoto, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Victoria (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Holroyd, Clay B.
- Venue
- Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-12
- Volume
- 71
- Pages
- 418-443
- ISSN
- 0149-7634 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2523836484
- Cited by
- 187
- References
- 73
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 2.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Canada Research Chairs
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Keywords
- Research Domain Criteria, anterior cingulate cortex, reward processing, cognitive control, reward positivity, individual differences, personality traits, reward sensitivity, persistence, etiology of mental disorders, computational framework, dimensional models of psychopathology
- MeSH terms
- Gyrus Cinguli, Humans, Individuality, Reward
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