[en] Neuronal aggregates involved in conscious awareness are not evenly distributed throughout the CNS but are comprised of key components referred to as the neural network correlates of consciousness (NNCC). A critical node in this network is the retrosplenial, posterior cingulate, and precuneal cortices (RSC/PCC/PrCC). The cytological and neurochemical composition of this region is reviewed in relation to the Brodmann map. This region has the highest level of brain glucose metabolism and cytochrome c oxidase activity. Monkey studies suggest that the anterior thalamic projection likely drives RSC and PCC metabolism and that the midbrain projection to the anteroventral thalamic nucleus is a key coupling site between the brainstem system for arousal and cortical systems for cognitive processing and awareness. The pivotal role of RSC/PCC/PrCC in consciousness is demonstrated with posterior cingulate epilepsy cases, midcingulate lesions that de-afferent this region and are associated with unilateral sensory neglect, observations from stroke and vegetative state patients, alterations in blood flow during sleep, and the actions of anesthetics. Since this region is critically involved in self reflection, it is not surprising that it is similarly a site for the NNCC. Interestingly, information processing during complex cognitive tasks and during aversive sensations such as pain induces efforts to terminate self reflection and result in decreased processing in PCC/PrCC. Finally, anatomical relations between the neural correlates of mind and NNCC in the cingulate gyrus do not appear to overlap and suggests that mental function and conscious awareness may be mediated by two neural networks.
Disciplines :
Neurosciences & behavior
Author, co-author :
Vogt, B. A.
Laureys, Steven ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Consciousness-Coma Science Group
Language :
English
Title :
Posterior cingulate, precuneal and retrosplenial cortices: cytology and components of the neural network correlates of consciousness
Publication date :
2005
Journal title :
Progress in Brain Research
ISSN :
0079-6123
eISSN :
1875-7855
Publisher :
Elsevier Science Bv, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Volume :
150
Issue :
Boundaries of Consciousness: Neurobiology and Neuropathology
J.H. Adams, D.I. Graham, and B. Jennett The neuropathology of the vegetative state after an acute brain insult Brain 123 2000 1327 1338
L.J. Adler, F.E. Gyulai, D.J. Diehl, M.A. Mintun, P.M. Winter, and L.L. Firestone Regional brain activity changes associated with fentanyl analgesia elucidated by positron emission tomography Anesth. Analg. 84 1997 120 126
M.T. Alkire, M.T. Pomfrett, C.J. Haier, R.J. Gianzero, M.V. Chan, B.P. Jacobson, and J.H. Fallon Functional brain imaging during anesthesia in humans: effects of halothane on global and regional cerebral glucose metabolism Anesthesiology 90 1999 701 709
N.C. Andreasen, D.S. O'Leary, T. Cizadlo, S. Arndt, K. Rezai, G.L. Watkins, L.L. Ponto, and R.D. Hichwa Remembering the past: two facts of episodic memory explored with positron emission tomography Am. J. Psychiatry. 152 1995 1576 1585
J.S. Archer, D.F. Abbott, A.B. Waites, and G.D. Jackson fMRI "deactivation" of posterior cingulate cortex during generalized spike and wave NeuroImage 20 2003 1915 1922
A.M. Aupée, B. Desgranges, F. Eustache, C. Lalevee, V. de la Sayette, F. Viader, and J.C. Baron Voxel-based mapping of brain hypometabolism in permanent amnesia with PET Neuroimage 13 2001 1164 1173
V. Bonhomme, P. Fiset, P. Meuret, S. Backman, G. Plourde, T. Paus, M.C. Bushnell, and A.C. Evans Propofol anesthesia and cerebral blood flow changes elicited by vibrotactile stimulation: a positron emission tomography study J. Neurophysiol. 85 2001 1299 1308
K. Brodmann Vergleichende Localisationslehre der Grosshirnrinde 1909 Barth Leipzi
E.W. Carroll, and M.T.T. Wong-Riley Quantitative light and electron microscopic analysis of cytochrome oxidase-rich zones in the striate cortex of the squirrel monkey J. Comp. Neurol. 222 1984 1 17
D.R. Curro, D. Pare, and M. Steriade Short-lasting nicotinic and long-lasting muscarinic depolarizing responses of thalamocortical neurons to stimulation of mesopontine cholinergic nuclei J. Neurophysiol. 65 1991 393 406
O. Devinsky, and D. Luciano The contributions of cingulate cortex to human behavior B.A. Vogt M. Gabriel Neurobiology of Cingulate Cortex and Limbic Thalamus 1993 Birkhauser Boston 527 556
P. Fiset, T. Paus, T. Daloze, G. Plourde, P. Meuet, V. Bonhomme, N. Haij-Ali, S.B. Backman, and A.C. Evans Brain mechanisms of propofol-induced loss of consciousness in humans: a positron emission tomographic study J. Neurosci. 19 1999 5506 5513
P. Fletcher, F. Happe, U. Frith, S.C. Baker, R.J. Dolan, R.S.J. Frakowiack, and C.D. Frith Other minds in the brain: a functional imaging study of "theory of mind" in story comprehension Cognition 57 1995 109 128
C.D. Frith, K. Friston, P.F. Liddle, and R.S.J. Frakowiack Willed actions and the prefrontal cortex in man: a study with PET Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B. 244 1991 241 246
V. Goel, B. Gold, S. Kapur, and S. Houle The seats of reason? An imaging study of deductive and inductive reasoning Cog. Neurosci. Neuropsychol. 8 1997 1305 1309
M.D. Greicius, B. Krasnow, A.L. Reiss, and V. Menon Functional connectivity in the resting brain: a network analysis of the default mode hyopothesis Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 100 2003 253 258
D.A. Gusnard, and M.E. Raichle Searching for a baseline: functional imaging and the resting human brain Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 2 2001 685 694
K.K. Kaisti, L. Metsahonkala, M. Teras, V. Oikonen, S. Aalto, S. Jaaskelainen, S. Hinkka, and H. Scheinin Effects of surgical levels of propofol and servoflurane anesthesia on cerebral blood flow in healthy subjects studied with positron emission tomography Anesthesiology 96 2002 1358 1370
A. Kampfl, E. Schutzhard, E. Franz, B. Pfausler, H.-P. Haring, H. Ulmer, S. Felber, S. Golaszewski, and F. Aichner Prediction of recovery from post-traumatic vegetative state with cerebral magnetic-resonance imaging The Lancet 351 1998 1763 1767
W.M. Kelley, C.N. Macrae, C.L. Wyland, S. Caglar, S. Inati, and T.F. Heatherton Finding the self? an event-related fMRI study J. Cog. Neurosci. 14 2002 785 794
H.C. Kinney, J. Korein, A. Panigraphy, P. Dikkes, and R. Goode Neuropathological findings in the brain of Karen Ann Quinlan, the role of the thalamus in the persistent vegetative state NEJM 330 1994 1469 1475
S. Kinomura, J. Larsson, B. Gulyas, and P.E. Roland Activation by attention of the human reticular formation and thalamic intralaminar nuclei Science 271 1996 512 515
T.T.J. Kircher, M. Brammer, E. Bullmore, A. Simmons, M. Bartels, and A.S. David The neural correlates of intentional and incidental self processing Neuropsychologia 40 2002 683 692
S. Laureys Functional neuroimaging in the vegetative state NeuroRehabilitation 19 2004 335 341
S. Laureys, M.E. Faymonville, C. Degueldre, G.D. Fiore, P. Damas, B. Lambermont, N. Janssens, J. Aerts, G. Franck, A. Luxen, G. Moonen, M. Lamy, and P. Maquet Auditory processing in the vegetative state Brain 123 2000 1589 1601
S. Laureys, M. Faymonville, M. Ferring, C. Schnakers, S. Elincx, N. Ligot, S. Majerus, S. Antoine, N. Mavroudakis, J. Berre, A. Luxen, J.L. Vincent, G. Moonen, M. Lamy, S. Goldman, and P. Maquet Differences in brain metabolism between patients in coma, vegetative state, minimally conscious state and locked-in syndrome. 7th Congress of the European Federation of Neurological Societies (FENS), 30 August-2 September, 2003, Helsinki, Finland, Eur. J. Neurol. 10 Suppl. 1 2003 224
S. Laureys, S. Goldman, C. Phillips, P. Van Bogaert, J. Aerts, A. Luxen, G. Franck, and P. Maquet Impaired effective cortical connectivity in vegetative state: preliminary investigation using PET NeuroImage 9 1999 377 382
S. Laureys, A.M. Owen, and N.D. Schiff Brain function in coma, vegetative state, and related disorders Lancet Neurol. 3 2004 537 546
N. Malamud Psychiatric disorder with intracranial tumors of limbic system Arch. Neurol. 17 1967 113 123
P. Maquet, J.-M. Peters, J. Aerts, G. Delfiore, C. Degueldre, A. Luxen, and G. Franck Functional neuroanatomy of human rapid-eye-movement sleep and dreaming Nature 383 1996 163 166
P. Maquet, C. Degueldre, G. Delfiore, J. Aerts, J.M. Peters, A. Luxen, and G. Frank Functional neuroanatomy of human slow wave sleep J. Neurosci. 17 1997 2807 2812
K.I. Matsunami, T. Kawashima, and H. Satake Mode of [14C]-2- deoxy-d-glucose uptake into retrosplenial cortex and other memory-related structures of the monkey during a delayed response task Brain Res. Bull. 22 1989 829 838
G. Mazars Criteria for identifying cingulate epilepsies Epilepsia 11 1970 41 47
B.M. Mazoyer, N. Tzourio, V. Frak, A. Syrota, N. Murayanna, O. Levrier, G. Salamon, S. Dehaene, L. Cohen, and J. Mehler The cortical representation of speech J. Cogn. Neurosci. 5 1993 467 469
S. Minoshima, B. Giordani, S. Berent, K. Frey, N.L. Foster, and D.E. Kuhl Metabolic reduction in the posterior cingulate cortex in very early Alzheimer's disease Ann. Neurol. 42 1997 85 94
L.E. Nelson, T.Z. Guo, J. Lu, C.B. Saper, N.P. Franks, and M. Maze The sedative component of anesthesia is mediated by GABAA receptors in an endogenous sleep pathway Nat. Neurosci. 5 2002 978 984
M. Piefke, P.H. Weiss, K. Zilles, H.J. Markowitch, and G.R. Fink Differential remoteness and emotional tone modulate the neural correlates of autobiographical memory Brain 126 2003 650 668
M.E. Raichle The neural correlates of consciousness: an analysis of cognitive skill learning M.S. Gazzaniga The New Cognitive Neurosciences 2000 The MIT Press Cambridge, MA 1305 1318
P. Rudge, and E.K. Warrington Selective impairment of memory and visual perception in splenial tumors Brain 114 1991 349 360
M.V. Sofroniew, J.V. Priestley, A. Consolazione, F. Eckenstein, and A.C. Cuello Cholinergic projections from the midbrain and pons to the thalamus in the rat identified by combined retrograde tracing and choline acetyltransferase immunohistochemistry Brain Res. 329 1985 213 223
M. Steriade Arousal: revisiting the reticular activating system Science 272 1996 225 226
N. Takahashi, M. Kawamura, J. Shiota, N. Kasahata, and K. Hirayama Pure topographic disorientation due to right retrosplenial lesion Neurology 49 1997 464 469
J. Talairach, and P. Tournoux Co-planar stereotaxic atlas of the human brain 1988 Thieme Stuttgart
E. Valenstein, D. Bowers, M. Verfaellie, K.M. Heilman, A. Day, and R.T. Watson Retrosplenial amnesia Brain 110 1987 1631 1646
T. Van Groen, B.A. Vogt, and J.M. Wyss Interconnection between the thalamus and retrosplenial cortex in the rodent brain B.A. Vogt M. Gabriel Neurobiology of Cingulate Cortex and Limbic Thalamus 1993 Birkhauser Boston 123 150
K. Vogeley, M.M. Ritzl, P. Falkai, K. Zilles, and G.R. Fink Neural correlates of first-person perspective as one constituent of human self-consciousness J. Cog. Neurosci. 16 2004 817 827
B.A. Vogt, S.W.J. Derbyshire, and A.K.P. Jones Pain processing in four regions of human cingulate cortex localized with co-registered PET and MR Imaging Eur. J. Neurosci. 8 1996 1461 1473
B.A. Vogt, and O. Devinsky Topography and relationships of mind and brain Prog. Brain Res. 122 2000 11 22
B.A. Vogt, and D.N. Pandya Cingulate cortex in rhesus monkey. II. Cortical afferents J. Comp. Neurol. 262 1987 271 289
B.A. Vogt, D.L. Rosene, and D.N. Pandya Cingulate cortex in rhesus monkey. I. Cytoarchitecture and thalamic afferents J. Comp. Neurol. 262 1987 256 270
B.A. Vogt, D.L. Rosene, and A. Peters Synaptic termination of thalamic and callosal afferents in cinguate cortex of the rat J. Comp. Neurol. 201 1981 265 283
B.A. Vogt, L. Vogt, and N.B. Farber Cingulate cortex and disease models G. Paxinos The Rat Nervous System 3rd ed 2004 Elsevier San Diego, CA 705 727
B.A. Vogt, L. Vogt, and P.R. Hof Cingulate Gyrus G. Paxinos J.K. Mai The Human Nervous System 2nd ed 2003 Elsevier San Diego, CA 915 949
Vogt, B.A., Vogt, L.J. and Laureys, S. (2005). Cytology and functionally correlated circuits of posterior cingulate areas. Neuroimage, in press.
B.A. Vogt, L.J. Vogt, E.A. Nimchinsky, and P.R. Hof Primate cingulate chemoarchitecture and its disruption in Alzheimer's disease F.E. Bloom A. Björklund T. Hökfelt The Primate Nervous System, Part 1 Vol. 13 1997 Elsevier New York 455 528
B.A. Vogt, L.J. Vogt, D.P. Perl, and P.R. Hof Cytology of human caudomedial cingulate, retrosplenial, and caudal parahippocampal cortices J. Comp. Neurol. 438 2001 353 376
R.T. Watson, K.M. Heilman, J.C. Cauthen, and F.A. King Neglect aster cingulectomy Neurology 23 1973 1003 1007
T. Yamamoto, H. Kurobe, J. Kawamura, S. Hashimoto, and M. Nakamura Subacute dementia with nectrotizing encephalitis selectively involving the fornix and splenium J. Neurol. Sci. 96 1990 159 172
