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.
Emotional lateralization
The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays a role in a variety of functions including emotional ones. The ACC may be important in conscious awareness of emotion. Damage to the ACC is associated with decreased SCR to physical and psychological stimuli. Bilateral and unilateral damage both resulted in decreased SCR indicates that the right and left ACC's may specialized in certain aspects of emotional response.