Practice dependent alterations in activation of the anterior cingulate cortex during the Stroop task: A positron emission tomography study

Object Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the sensory thalamus has been used to treat chronic, intractable pain. The goal of this study was to investigate the thalamocortical pathways activated during thalamic DBS. Methods The authors compared positron emission tomography (PET) images obtained before, during, and after DBS in five patients with chronic pain. Two of the five patients reported significant DBS-induced pain relief during PET scanning, and the remaining three patients did not report any analgesic effect of DBS during scanning. The most robust effect associated with DBS was activation of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). An anterior ACC activation was sustained throughout the 40 minutes of DBS, whereas a more posteriorly located ACC activation occurred at a delay after onset of DBS, although these activations were not dependent on the degree of pain relief reported during DBS. However, implications specific to the analgesic effect of DBS require further study of a larger, more homogeneous patient population. Additional effects of thalamic DBS were detected in motor-related regions (the globus pallidus, cortical area 4, and the cerebellum) and visual and association cortical areas. Conclusions The authors demonstrate that the ACC is activated during thalamic DBS in patients with chronic pain.

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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.1996.0132 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 351 (1346) ◽

pp. 1473-1479 ◽

Cited By ~ 128

Keyword(s):

Positron Emission Tomography ◽

Motor Learning ◽

Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Cingulate Cortex ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Emission Tomography ◽

Motor Sequence ◽

Positron Emission ◽

New Learning ◽

Verb Generation

The paper considers the question of why subjects are poor at performing two tasks simultaneously if both require attention. It is shown using positron emission tomography (PET) that during new learning of a motor sequence task the prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex are extensively activated, but that they are no longer activated when a motor sequence has been practiced for an hour until it is automatic. It is also shown that early in motor learning there is interference if subjects are required to generate verbs at the same time, but that the interference is much less if they are required to do this late in motor learning. The prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex are activated during verb generation. It is therefore suggested that the interference occurs centrally, and that it occurs in either prefrontal or anterior cingulate cortex.

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Activation of the anterior cingulate cortex by thalamic stimulation in patients with chronic pain: a positron emission tomography study

Journal of Neurosurgery ◽

10.3171/jns.2000.92.1.0064 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 92 (1) ◽

pp. 64-69 ◽

Cited By ~ 76

Author(s):

Karen D. Davis ◽

Ethan Taub ◽

Frank Duffner ◽

Andres M. Lozano ◽

Ronald R. Tasker ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Positron Emission Tomography ◽

Chronic Pain ◽

Pain Relief ◽

Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽

Analgesic Effect ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Emission Tomography ◽

Content Type ◽

Positron Emission ◽

Fine Print

Object. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the sensory thalamus has been used to treat chronic, intractable pain. The goal of this study was to investigate the thalamocortical pathways activated during thalamic DBS.Methods. The authors compared positron emission tomography (PET) images obtained before, during, and after DBS in five patients with chronic pain. Two of the five patients reported significant DBS-induced pain relief during PET scanning, and the remaining three patients did not report any analgesic effect of DBS during scanning. The most robust effect associated with DBS was activation of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). An anterior ACC activation was sustained throughout the 40 minutes of DBS, whereas a more posteriorly located ACC activation occurred at a delay after onset of DBS, although these activations were not dependent on the degree of pain relief reported during DBS. However, implications specific to the analgesic effect of DBS require further study of a larger, more homogeneous patient population. Additional effects of thalamic DBS were detected in motor-related regions (the globus pallidus, cortical area 4, and the cerebellum) and visual and association cortical areas.Conclusions. The authors demonstrate that the ACC is activated during thalamic DBS in patients with chronic pain.

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