Ventral anterior cingulate cortex (vACC) is a highly interconnected brain region considered to reflect the sometimes competing demands of cognition and emotion. A reciprocal relationship between vACC and dorsal ACC (dACC) may play a role in maintaining this balance between cognitive and emotional processing. Using functional MRI in association with a cognitively-demanding visuospatial task (mental rotation), we found that only women demonstrated vACC suppression and inverse functional connectivity with dACC. Sex differences in vACC functioning--previously described under conditions of negative emotion--are extended here to cognition. Consideration of participant sex is essential to understanding the role of vACC in cognitive and emotional processing.
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Butler et al. (2007) studied this question.