Bilateral cingulotomy
Neuroimaging also uncovered different sub-regions in the anterior cingulate cortex itself based on their function. These studies showed that the caudal part of the anterior cingulate cortex plays a more important function in cognitive activities that involve attention, salience, interference and response competition. These results combined with electrophysiological investigation of the function of neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex have provided insights that can be used in the improvement of cingulotomy performed on patients treated for OCD. The basis behind this idea is the fact that a variation of certain tasks, Emotional Stroop tasks (ES), which have been particularly identified as exerting effects in OCD patients activate neurons in the more rostral part of the anterior cingulate cortex. Thus, theoretically if bilateral cingulotomy is performed in such patient in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex, better results should be obtained.
Posterior cingulate cortex
Considering the PCC's relation with the DMN, since suppressed posterior cingulate activity favors low cognitive introspection and higher external attention while increased activity indicates memory retrieval and planning, it has been hypothesized that this brain region is heavily involved in noticing internal and external changes and facilitating novel behavior or thought in response. High activity, then, would indicate continued operation with the current cognitive set, while lower activity would indicate exploration, flexibility, and renewed learning.