Shared Neural Representations of Cognitive Conflict and Negative Affect in the Medial Frontal Cortex

Abstract

Influential theories of medial frontal cortex (MFC) function suggest that the MFC registers cognitive conflict as an aversive signal, but no study directly tested this idea. Instead, recent studies suggested that non-overlapping regions in the MFC process conflict and affect. In this pre-registered human fMRI study, we used multivariate pattern analyses to identify which regions respond similarly to conflict and aversive signals. The results reveal that, of all conflict- and value-related regions, the ventral pre-supplementary motor area (or dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) showed a shared neural pattern response to different conflict and affect tasks. These findings challenge recent conclusions that conflict and affect are processed independently, and provide support for integrative views of MFC function.