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.
Anterior corticospinal tract
It consists of descending fibers that arise from cells in the motor area of the ipsilateral cerebral hemisphere. The impulse travels from these upper motor neurons (located in the pre-central gyrus of the brain) through the anterior column. In contrast to the fibers for the lateral corticospinal tract, the fibers for the anterior corticospinal tract do not decussate at the level of the medulla oblongata, although they do cross over in the spinal level they innervate. They then synapse at the anterior horn with the lower motor neuron which then synapses with the target muscle at the motor end plate. In contrast to the lateral corticospinal tract which controls the movement of the limbs, the anterior corticospinal tract controls the movements of axial muscles (of the trunk).