The DOI matches its Crossref record; 103 of the 103 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Emotional processing in anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex
Open accessAbstract
Negative emotional stimuli activate a broad network, including the medial prefrontal (mPFC) and anterior cingulate (ACC) cortices. An early influential view dichotomized these regions into dorsal-caudal “cognitive” and ventral-rostral “affective” subdivisions. In this review, we examine a wealth of recent research on negative emotions in animals and humans, using the example of fear/anxiety, and conclude that, contrary to the traditional dichotomy, both subdivisions make key contributions to emotional processing. Specifically, dorsal-caudal regions of the ACC/mPFC are involved in appraisal and expression of negative emotion, while ventral-rostral portions of the ACC/mPFC have a regulatory role with respect to limbic regions involved in generating emotional responses. Moreover, this new framework is broadly consistent with emerging data on other negative and positive emotions.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“particular connectivity between the dMPFC and the rostral ACC has been implicated in the conscious appraisal of emotion (Etkin et al., 2011),”
From Distinct functional connectivities predict clinical response with emotion regulation therapy (2017) · cites this paper as Etkin et al., 2011
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Increased late-phase dACC activation in the acceptance condition was found in regions that directly overlap with those reported in the extinction of contextual fear, and in particular the early stages of within-session extinction (Lang et al., 2009; Etkin et al., 2011).”
From Neural correlates of emotion acceptance vs worry or suppression in generalized anxiety disorder (2017) · cites this paper as Etkin et al., 2011
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Like dACC, pregenual ACC has been implicated in social pain and rejection (Rotge et al., 2014), as well as during the regulation of emotional conflicts (Etkin et al., 2011), and responses to social-evaluative threat (Wager et al., 2009).”
From Neural responses to social threat and predictors of cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy in social anxiety disorder (2017) · cites this paper as Etkin et al., 2011
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“The dACC has been shown to be involved in monitoring and appraisal of potential threat and emotion conflict (Etkin et al., 2011).”
From Neural responses to social threat and predictors of cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy in social anxiety disorder (2017) · cites this paper as Etkin et al., 2011
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Etkin et al. (45) proposes both sections to be involved in emotion processing, but with the dorsal regions playing a role in evaluation and expression of negative affect, and the ventral regions (subgenual and pregenual ACC) having a regulatory role by inhibiting the emotional response via the limbic system.”
From SSRI Treatment Response Prediction in Depression Based on Brain Activation by Emotional Stimuli (2020) · cites this paper as [45]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Many PFC areas are particularly associated with control over emotionally relevant information (hot CC) [60–64, 66], which, as discussed earlier, show some dissociations from cool CC.”
From The role of prefrontal cortex in cognitive control and executive function (2022) · cites this paper as [64]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Many PFC areas are particularly associated with control over emotionally relevant information (hot CC) [60–64, 66], which, as discussed earlier, show some dissociations from cool CC.”
From The role of prefrontal cortex in cognitive control and executive function (2022) · cites this paper as [64]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“This is consistent with previous work showing that dACC activation is associated with appraisal and expression of fear and pain (Etkin et al. 2011), as well as a sense of personal agency or will to persevere (Parvizi et al. 2013).”
From Brain Activity and Functional Connectivity Associated with Hypnosis (2016) · cites this paper as Etkin et al. 2011
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“In fact, some parts of cACC are highly involved in emotional processes that include negative valence such as pain unpleasantness (Vogt et al., 1993), social exclusion (Eisenberger, 2012) and fear potentiation and appraisal (Etkin et al., 2011; Milad and Quirk, 2012).”
From Top-Down Dysregulation—From ADHD to Emotional Instability (2016) · cites this paper as Etkin et al., 2011
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Importantly, although the rACC and cACC differ in their involvement in attentional tasks—as has long been suggested (Bush et al., 2000)—there is little support for a general division between an emotional and a non-emotional cingulate (Etkin et al., 2011; Okon-Singer et al., 2015).”
From Top-Down Dysregulation—From ADHD to Emotional Instability (2016) · cites this paper as Etkin et al., 2011
In the citing paper
“The ACC plays a central role in processing positively valenced emotions [239] and other rewards [240], and in coding value representations of anticipated rewards [241]”
From Reward circuitry dysfunction in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders and genetic syndromes: animal models and clinical findings (2012) · cites this paper as [239]
In the citing paper
“These ventral ACC regions correspond to the ‘affective' subdivision of the ACC, which is densely interconnected with limbic and paralimbic structures (eg, amygdala, nucleus accumbens), has been implicated in emotion expression/regulation, and is a critical hub in the default mode network linked to self-referential processing (Buckner et al, 2008; Etkin et al, 2011).”
From Neural Correlates of Three Promising Endophenotypes of Depression: Evidence from the EMBARC Study (2016) · cites this paper as Etkin et al, 2011
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Conflict monitoring and cognitive control
Botvinick, M. M., Braver, T. S., Barch, D. M., Carter, C. S., & Cohen, J. D. (2001) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.108.3.624 · Cited by 7,351
How do you feel — now? The anterior insula and human awareness
(Bud) Craig, A. D. (2009) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn2555 · Cited by 6,657
Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex
Bush, G., Luu, P., & Posner, M. I. (2000) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(00)01483-2 · Cited by 6,259
Emotion regulation: affective, cognitive, and social consequences.
Gross, J. J. (2002) · Psychophysiology · doi:10.1017/s0048577201393198 · Cited by 4,890
The cognitive control of emotion
OCHSNER, K., & GROSS, J. (2005) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2005.03.010 · Cited by 4,495
Does Rejection Hurt? An fMRI Study of Social Exclusion
Eisenberger, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., & Williams, K. D. (2003) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1089134 · Cited by 3,849
Emotion, Decision Making and the Orbitofrontal Cortex
Bechara, A. (2000) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/10.3.295 · Cited by 3,589
A PROPOSED MECHANISM OF EMOTION
PAPEZ, J. W. (1937) · Archives of Neurology And Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archneurpsyc.1937.02260220069003 · Cited by 3,563
Functional neuroanatomy of emotion: A meta-analysis of emotion activation studies in PET and fMRI
Phan, K. L., Wager, T., Taylor, S. F., & Liberzon, I. (2002) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1006/nimg.2002.1087 · Cited by 3,502
Neural systems supporting interoceptive awareness
Critchley, H. D., Wiens, S., Rotshtein, P., Öhman, A., & Dolan, R. J. (2004) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn1176 · Cited by 3,406
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 1,001–1,033 of 1,033
Chalkiadaki, K., Velli, A., Kyriazidis, E., Stavroulaki, V., Vouvoutsis, V., Chatzaki, E., Aivaliotis, M., & Sidiropoulou, K. (2019) · Neuropharmacology · doi:10.1016/j.neuropharm.2018.10.026 · Cited by 33
“…pathophysiology of SZ (Olney et al., 1999)(for reviews see (Nakazawa et al., 2012; Snyder and Gao, 2013)) and c) the neurodevelopmental hypothesis (Fatemi and Folsom 2009; Lafargue and Brasic 2000; Marenco and Weinberger 2000; Owen et al., 2011)which proposes that SZ arises from insults that…”
Aberrant spontaneous and task-dependent functional connections in the anxious brain
MacNamara, A., DiGangi, J., & Phan, K. L. (2016) · Biological Psychiatry Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging · doi:10.1016/j.bpsc.2015.12.004 · Cited by 34
“Anatomical connections between the OFC and the amygdala may facilitate the implementation of emotion regulation (9; 13; 16).”
BackgroundBubenzer‐Busch, S., Herpertz‐Dahlmann, B., Kuzmanovic, B., Gaber, T. J., Helmbold, K., Ullisch, M. G., Baurmann, D., Eickhoff, S. B., Fink, G. R., & Zepf, F. D. (2016) · Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica · doi:10.1111/acps.12475 · Cited by 35
“It has been associated with both monitoring and controlling emotional processes (17, 18, 42), thereby playing a central role in emotional conflict regulation and the topdown control of emotions (41).”
BackgroundPetrovic, P., Ekman, C. J., Klahr, J., Tigerström, L., Rydén, G., Johansson, A. G. M., Sellgren, C., Golkar, A., Olsson, A., Öhman, A., et al. (2016) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsv072 · Cited by 38
“…important in top-down control of emotional processing: rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) (Bush et al., 2000; Petrovic et al., 2005; Etkin et al., 2006, 2011) and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lObfc) (Petrovic et al., 2005; Eippert Received: 29 August 2014; Revised: 24 April 2015;…”
BackgroundWang, X.-L., Wei, X., Yuan, J.-J., Mao, Y.-Y., Wang, Z.-Y., Xing, N., Gu, H.-W., Lin, C.-H., Wang, W.-T., Zhang, W., et al. (2022) · Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fncel.2022.884296 · Cited by 34
Harnett, N. G., Wood, K. H., Ference, E. W., Reid, M. A., Lahti, A. C., Knight, A. J., & Knight, D. C. (2017) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2017.04.010 · Cited by 31
Wackerhagen, C., Wüstenberg, T., Mohnke, S., Erk, S., Veer, I. M., Kruschwitz, J. D., Garbusow, M., Romund, L., Otto, K., Schweiger, J. I., et al. (2017) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/npp.2017.59 · Cited by 33
“…segregation has been repeatedly reported in studies of amygdala FC during emotional processing, showing negative FC with dorsal and positive FC with ventral parts of the PFC during emotional processing and social cognition across task conditions (Bzdok et al, 2013; Etkin et al, 2011).”
BackgroundPerera, M. P. N., Gotsis, E. S., Bailey, N. W., Fitzgibbon, B. M., & Fitzgerald, P. B. (2024) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/bhae327 · Cited by 34
Webb, C. A., Olson, E. A., Killgore, W. D. S., Pizzagalli, D. A., Rauch, S. L., & Rosso, I. M. (2018) · Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging · doi:10.1016/j.bpsc.2017.08.005 · Cited by 34
Vignaud, P., Donde, C., Sadki, T., Poulet, E., & Brunelin, J. (2018) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.03.004 · Cited by 33
“Hence, regardless of the clinical condition, MBIs were found to modulate activity in cortical regions that had been implicated in highorder cognitive and emotional functions, including meta-awareness, self-referencing and “thinking about thinking” (Badre and Wagner, 2002; Etkin et al., 2011; Ridderinkhof et al., 2004).”
BackgroundZhang, X., Luo, Q., Wang, S., Qiu, L., Pan, N., Kuang, W., Lui, S., Huang, X., Yang, X., Kemp, G. J., et al. (2020) · EBioMedicine · doi:10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.102910 · Cited by 31
“As a key node of the classic fear circuit, the PFC potentially plays a crucial role in social behavior control, information processing, and emotion regulation [67], and in the latter, different subdivisions of the PFC perform distinctive functions [68], which we briefly consider here.”
BackgroundPresynaptic Serotoninergic Regulation of Emotional Processing: A Multimodal Brain Imaging Study
Selvaraj, S., Mouchlianitis, E., Faulkner, P., Turkheimer, F., Cowen, P. J., Roiser, J. P., & Howes, O. (2015) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2014.04.011 · Cited by 29
Jenkins, L. M., Stange, J. P., Barba, A., DelDonno, S. R., Kling, L. R., Briceño, E. M., Weisenbach, S. L., Phan, K. L., Shankman, S. A., Welsh, R. C., et al. (2017) · Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3758/s13415-017-0547-3 · Cited by 28
Predicting Brain Functional Connectivity Using Mobile Sensing
Obuchi, M., Huckins, J. F., Wang, W., daSilva, A., Rogers, C., Murphy, E., Hedlund, E., Holtzheimer, P., Mirjafari, S., & Campbell, A. (2020) · Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies · doi:10.1145/3381001 · Cited by 29
“The vmPFC is reported to be related to decisionmaking [9, 38], reward evaluation [78], morality [32] and emotion regulation [23, 36].”
BackgroundJamieson, D., Shan, Z., Lagopoulos, J., & Hermens, D. F. (2021) · Sleep Medicine Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.smrv.2021.101450 · Cited by 28
Marquis, L.-P., Julien, S.-H., Baril, A.-A., Blanchette-Carrière, C., Paquette, T., Carr, M., Soucy, J.-P., Montplaisir, J., & Nielsen, T. (2019) · Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine · doi:10.5664/jcsm.7628 · Cited by 25
“39 Our neurocognitive model does not deal directly with this distinction but it nevertheless proposes a specific role for ACC that is supported by the findings.”
Lee, S.-K., Chun, J. W., Lee, J. S., Park, H.-J., Jung, Y.-C., Seok, J.-H., & Kim, J.-J. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0090792 · Cited by 26
“response tendencies or when goal-directed activity requires suppression of task irrelevant stimulus sources [44,45], ambivalent stimuli may induce conflicting emotional appraisals and responses that require regulation.”
BackgroundNeurobiological and genetic correlates of the dissociative subtype of posttraumatic stress disorder.
Wolf, E. J., Hawn, S. E., Sullivan, D. R., Miller, M. W., Sanborn, V., Brown, E., Neale, Z., Fein-Schaffer, D., Zhao, X., Logue, M. W., et al. (2023) · Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science · doi:10.1037/abn0000795 · Cited by 23
SSRI Treatment Response Prediction in Depression Based on Brain Activation by Emotional Stimuli
Preuss, A., Bolliger, B., Schicho, W., Hättenschwiler, J., Seifritz, E., Brühl, A. B., & Herwig, U. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2020.538393 · Cited by 22
“(45) proposes both sections to be involved in emotion processing, but with the dorsal regions playing a role in evaluation and”
BackgroundAltered time course of amygdala activation during speech anticipation in social anxiety disorder
Davies, C. D., Young, K., Torre, J. B., Burklund, L. J., Goldin, P. R., Brown, L. A., Niles, A. N., Lieberman, M. D., & Craske, M. G. (2017) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2016.11.014 · Cited by 21
“…2012; Phan et al., 2006; but see Pujol et al., 2013) and medial prefrontal cortex areas (e.g., Stein et al., 2002; Straube et al., 2004; Labuschagne et al., 2012) compared to controls, consistent with evidence for these regions in identifying and expressing negative emotion (Etkin et al., 2011).”
ResultAtypical processing of social anticipation and feedback in borderline personality disorder
Doell, K. C., Olié, E., Courtet, P., Corradi-Dell'Acqua, C., Perroud, N., & Schwartz, S. (2020) · NeuroImage: Clinical · doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2019.102126 · Cited by 21
“(Etkin et al., 2011), but has also been shown to suppress limbic Fig.”
BackgroundLiang, C., Pearlson, G., Bustillo, J., Kochunov, P., Turner, J. A., Wen, X., Jiang, R., Fu, Z., Zhang, X., Li, K., et al. (2023) · Schizophrenia Bulletin · doi:10.1093/schbul/sbac158 · Cited by 19
The influence of valence and decision difficulty on self-referential processing
Meffert, H., Blanken, L., Blair, K. S., White, S. F., & Blair, J. R. (2013) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00046 · Cited by 18
“ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE published: 28 February 2013 doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00046”
BackgroundInfluentialReliability of fronto–amygdala coupling during emotional face processing
Nord, C., Gray, A., Robinson, O., & Roiser, J. (2019) · Brain Sciences · doi:10.3390/brainsci9040089 · Cited by 17
“There is substantial evidence suggesting that anxiety-related processes, in fact, reflect a bidirectional modulation between amygdala and medial prefrontal circuitry, in particular the DMFC [16,17], which itself has been shown to be overactive in pathological anxiety [18].”
BackgroundMartini, M., Valentini, E., & Aglioti, S. M. (2013) · Experimental Brain Research · doi:10.1007/s00221-012-3365-4 · Cited by 17
Resting functional connectivity in social anxiety disorder and the effect of pharmacotherapy
Doruyter, A., Lochner, C., Jordaan, G. P., Stein, D. J., Dupont, P., & Warwick, J. M. (2016) · Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging · doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2016.04.009 · Cited by 16
van Hoof, M.-J., Riem, M. M. E., Garrett, A. S., van der Wee, N. J. A., van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Vermeiren, R. R. J. M. (2019) · European Journal of Psychotraumatology · doi:10.1080/20008198.2019.1583525 · Cited by 14
Moeller, S. J., Kundu, P., Bachi, K., Maloney, T., Malaker, P., Parvaz, M. A., Alia-Klein, N., London, E. D., & Goldstein, R. Z. (2020) · Drug and Alcohol Dependence · doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.107930 · Cited by 14
“One potential mechanism for this somewhat unexpected direction of association is that confronting the potential severity of one’s substance use could have elicited enhanced conflict/ambivalence [a core ACC function (Chen et al., 2018; Etkin et al., 2011) implicated in addiction (Zilverstand et al.”
BackgroundCarmi, L., Alyagon, U., Barnea-Ygael, N., Zohar, J., Zangen, A., & Dar, R. (2019) · European Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1016/j.euroneuro.2019.07.240 · Cited by 10
Song, X., Zhang, Y., Lu, Z., Xu, L., & Shen, H. (2026) · Computers & Education · doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2026.105578 · Cited by 12
Zheng, X., Luo, L., Li, J., Xu, L., Zhou, F., Gao, Z., Becker, B., & Kendrick, K. M. (2019) · Brain Structure and Function · doi:10.1007/s00429-019-01958-x · Cited by 10
Reduced age-related gray matter loss in the subgenual cingulate cortex in long-term meditators.
Kurth, F., Zsadanyi, S. E., & Luders, E. (2021) · Brain Imaging and Behavior · doi:10.1007/s11682-021-00578-6 · Cited by 11
Huang, Y., Zhang, H., Ma, B., Yu, Z., Dai, S., Cheng, L., Su, L., Yang, G., & Ma, Q. (2026) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2026.121754 · Cited by 5
Metadata
- Authors
- Etkin, A., Egner, T., & Kalisch, R.
- Affiliations
- VA Palo Alto Health Care System (US)
- Duke University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Etkin, Amit
- Venue
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-02
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 85-93
- ISSN
- 1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3035157
- OpenAlex
- W2050618347
- Semantic Scholar
- 54512ee234d533a5cb9cf8991a03f589cdd77376
- Cited by
- 3,059
- References
- 103
- Citations by year
- 2026: 191 · 2025: 190 · 2024: 196 · 2023: 186 · 2022: 178 · 2021: 216 · 2020: 228 · 2019: 226 · 2018: 271 · 2017: 227 · 2016: 237 · 2015: 203 · 2014: 199 · 2013: 159 · 2012: 96
- FWCI
- 7.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH091860, P30MH089888)
- NIH Clinical Center
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- emotional processing, anterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, negative emotions, fear, anxiety, emotion appraisal, emotional expression, positive emotions
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Brain Mapping, Emotions, Gyrus Cinguli, Humans, Prefrontal Cortex
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
