Bilateral cingulotomy
Studies in patients that were a subject to bilateral cingulotomy, that involved fMRI analyses, showed that the anterior cingulate cortex has a key role in cognitive control and is highly likely to be involved in the control of attentional response, whereas the dorsal part of that region of the brain was not identified to be involved in such a process, although this is still under dispute. The function of the dorsal part of the cingulate cortex was connected to the sorting out and processing of conflicting information signals. In addition, neuroimaging studies also indicated that the anterior cingulate cortex participates in the modulation of cortical regions that are of higher order as well as sensory processing areas.
Joni Wallis
Wallis moved to the United States for her postdoctoral research fellowship in the laboratory of Earl K. Miller studying neuronal activity in the prefrontal cortex, or the region of the brain that plays a key role in executive functions, which allow animals to coordinate appropriate responses to plan, reason, problem solve, and effectively reach goals. There, she explored the neural basis of how the prefrontal cortex encodes abstract rules to inform decisions under different circumstances.