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.
Neuromorality
The main brain regions that are involved in the regulation of moral cognition and behavior are those of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and amygdala. Less pronounced areas that are involved in moral regulation include the anterior cingulate gyrus, posterior cingulate gyrus, anterior insula, and the mesolimbic reward pathway.