Editing Anterior cingulate cortex (section)

===Role in consciousness===
The ACC area in the brain is associated with many functions that are correlated with conscious experience. Greater ACC activation levels were present in more emotionally aware female participants when shown short 'emotional' video clips.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Lane RD, Reiman EM, Axelrod B, Yun LS, Holmes A, Schwartz GE | title = Neural correlates of levels of emotional awareness. Evidence of an interaction between emotion and attention in the anterior cingulate cortex | journal = Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience | volume = 10 | issue = 4 | pages = 525–35 | date = July 1998 | pmid = 9712681 | doi = 10.1162/089892998562924 | s2cid = 27743177 }}</ref> Better emotional awareness is associated with improved recognition of emotional cues or targets, which is reflected by ACC activation.

The idea of awareness being associated with the ACC is supported by some evidence, in that it seems to be the case that, when subjects' responses are not congruent with actual responses, a larger [[error-related negativity]] is produced.<ref name=Luu04/>

One study found an ERN even when subjects were not aware of their error.<ref name=Luu04/> Awareness may not be necessary to elicit an ERN, but it could influence the effect of the amplitude of the feedback ERN. Relating to the reward-based learning theory, awareness could modulate expectancy violations. Increased awareness could result in decreased violations of expectancies and decreased awareness could achieve the opposite effect. Further research is needed to completely understand the effects of awareness on ACC activation.

In ''[[The Astonishing Hypothesis]]'', [[Francis Crick]] identifies the anterior cingulate, to be specific the anterior cingulate sulcus, as a likely candidate for the center of [[free will]] in humans. Crick bases this suggestion on scans of patients with specific lesions that seem to interfere with their sense of independent will, such as [[alien hand syndrome]].