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.
Nonprimary motor cortex
Nonprimary motor cortex is a functionally defined portion of the frontal lobe. It includes two subdivisions, the premotor cortex and the supplementary motor cortex. Largely coincident with the cytoarchitecturally defined area 6 of Brodmann (human), it is located primarily in the rostral portion of the precentral gyrus and caudal portions of the superior frontal gyrus and the middle frontal gyrus, It aids in cerebral control of movement. Anatomically speaking, several nonmprimary areas exist, and make direct connections with the spinal cord.