Risky Brain

Brown, along with co-author Todd Braver, looked at our brain's uh-oh hub by taking functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans as 16 volunteers took a special test. Study participants watched as a white or blue dash flashed on a computer screen and changed into an arrow. Participants then quickly pushed a computer key that corresponded with the arrow's direction. Sometimes, time-allotted responses changed or a larger arrow suddenly appeared causing some volunteers to make mistakes that register in the ACC, where prior research showed activity spiking as people err.

The Washington University team's advance is in showing that the brain can learn to recognize the likelihood of making mistakes. "What we found was that… with repeated experience performing the task, the participants brain became better and better at discriminating and lighting up more strongly in response to the blue," which Brown says he designed to increase mistakes. "Even though they didn't seem to be consciously aware of differences between the colors their brains showed that they were nonetheless…picking up on this."

But as much as the ACC can help, it can also thwart, as Brown explains: "You may find just by coincidence that certain things happen right before you make a mistake and this may just be a random coincidence but if it happens often enough… your brain might start to think that there is [a connection]. So, if you have a relationship with someone or a couple of different people and they have short blond hair and if those relationships don't work out… you might meet someone in the future who'd be a fine person, but… your anterior cingulate is telling you, 'Don't go there because look what happened in the past.'"

In recent years, scientists have been taking a harder look at the ACC because it's there that complicated cognitive processes have to come together smoothly for us to make the right decisions or to solve tasks. These studies are of particular interest to mental health professionals because ACC abnormalities have been associated with illnesses like schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

"[Schizophrenics] seem to be unfit at recognizing… when they're about to make a mistake or otherwise do something that will produce undesirable consequences, likewise in obsessive-compulsive disorder," says Brown. "There seems to be hyperactivity in the ACC [of obsessive-compulsives]. So it's as if the ACC is saying, 'Oh, this is a problem here you should be extra careful, even if there is no problem.'"

But don't look to the ACC for solutions. Says Brown, "The cingulate is detecting that there's a problem, but not necessarily figuring out how to deal with it…it tells other parts of the brain to become active and how to deal with it."

Ultimately, a clearer understanding of how the ACC works could put researchers in a better position to understand how it malfunctions, allowing more effective diagnosis and treatment of some mental illnesses, perhaps someday putting the brakes on risky behavior.