10.9: Affective Influences over Executive Function- Roles of the OFC and ACC

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One of the most important features of the PFC and executive function is that it integrates emotional and motivational influences together with high-level cognitive control and planning. The medial and ventral regions of the PFC are particularly important for processing emotional and motivational factors, with considerable data converging on the idea that the ventral medial areas including the orbital prefrontal cortex (OFC) are important for encoding the affective value of stimuli, while the dorsal medial areas (principally the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)) is important for encoding the affective value of motor actions and plans (Figure 10.6).

Here, we explore a model of these areas in the context of relatively simple conditioning tasks in animals.

TODO: Whip model, BG-OFC. ACC-STN model in cognitive control.