Human anterior cingulate cortex neurons modulated by attention-demanding tasks

Recent imaging studies have implicated the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in various cognitive functions, including attention. However, until now, th ere was no evidence for changes in neuronal activity of individual ACC neur ons during performance of tasks that require attention and effortful though t. We hypothesized these neurons must exist in the human ACC. In this study , we present electrophysiological data from microelectrode single neuron re cordings in the human ACC of neuronal modulation during attention-demanding tasks in 19% of 36 neurons tested. These findings provide the first direct evidence of an influence of a cognitive state on the spontaneous neuronal activity of human ACC neurons.