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Persisting through subjective effort: A key role for the anterior cingulate cortex?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2013

Kristin L. Hillman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand. khillman@psy.otago.ac.nzhttp://www.otago.ac.nz/psychology/staff/kristinhillman.htmldbilkey@psy.otago.ac.nzhttp://www.otago.ac.nz/psychology/staff/davidbilkey.html
David K. Bilkey
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand. khillman@psy.otago.ac.nzhttp://www.otago.ac.nz/psychology/staff/kristinhillman.htmldbilkey@psy.otago.ac.nzhttp://www.otago.ac.nz/psychology/staff/davidbilkey.html

Abstract

One shortcoming of Kurzban et al.'s model is that it is not clear how animals persist through subjectively effortful tasks, particularly over a long time course. We suggest that the anterior cingulate cortex plays a critical role by encoding the utility of an action, and signalling where efforts should be best directed based on previous and prospected experience.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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