Fortitude, Self-Discipline, and Fascination with the Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex
The aMCC is a small, but incredibly powerful, part of the limbic system
In the journey of self-improvement, some of the hardest hurdles appear before you even step foot on the track. These challenges range from mustering the necessary willpower and motivation to get a task done, to exercising self-restraint when appropriate.
Sometimes it’s about digging deep enough to find the energy to “just do it”.
Recent scientific research points to a specific region in the brain that is pivotal in these endeavours — that is, the tasks and emotions associated with pushing oneself to undertake activities that lack immediate appeal or intrinsic value. This little brain structure is the anterior mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC), and it is the subject of intense discussion and fascination within the field of neuroscience.
The significance of the aMCC has been popularised by Dr. Andrew Huberman, who has spoken at great length about its connection with willpower.
Understanding what the aMCC is
The aMCC is a specific, not completely anatomically or functionally understood, part of the limbic system. The hierarchy of it’s system — from high-level to low-level— goes as follows:
- Limbic system — the overarching system involved in ‘higher-level functions’ such as survival instincts, memory, emotion.
- Cingulate cortex — a major part of the limbic system, specifically involved in cognitive and emotional processing.
- Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) — within the cingulate cortex, a subsection with broad roles in emotion, cognition, motor control.
- Anterior mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC) — a specific part of the ACC that is focused on the integration of cognitive and motor responses in the context of tasks that require effort, decision-making, and pain regulation.
We don’t know where the specific anatomical boundaries of the aMCC are, and therefore don’t know how big or small it actually is, but we can extrapolate, knowing it’s a sub-section of a sub-section of a system.
For the nerds, it’s situated in the medial part of the cerebral cortex, dorsal to the genu of the corpus callosum and extending rostrally to the border of the superior frontal gyrus. It covers Brodmann areas 32' and a24c’, as well as areas in the rostral and caudal cingulate premotor areas (rCMA/rCPMA). It’s an agranular region. (1)
This part of the brain has been studied fairly comprehensively since the early 2000s, but it is in the past five years that research has really started to lean in to how significant a role it plays in emotional and cognitive processes. Indeed, when I completed my MSc in Neuroscience in October 2022, the research that I referred to for my own work in risk and reward-error processing was largely no more than three years old.
How is it related to fortitude, tenacity?
Ultimately, the aMCC has become popularised in a way that other adjacent brain areas haven’t (who ever talks about the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex??) because it is so clearly linked to motivation and drive. It is clearly implicated in effort valuation, goal achievement, persistence, and cognitive contributions to task completion.
Here’s the crux of the fascination: activity levels in the aMCC significantly increase when we do things that we don’t want to do (that is, they are not intrinsically motivating or we perceive them as undesirable), regardless of whether that thing is easy or hard.
This is an essential mechanism, because without this resource allocation, we would never be able to do necessary but unenjoyable tasks. It therefore helps us self-regulate; it plays a role in motor control and also cognitive function (2)(3).
The benefit to us can look like this:
Part one: activation by unwanted tasks
→ We understand that the aMCC is activated by doing something we don’t want to do (tasks that require effortful control, and are neither inherently rewarding nor enjoyable).
So, → I make myself do something that is necessary, important, even though I really don’t want to do it. This requires persistence, self-discipline.
Thus, → the aMCC is activated to some degree that appears relational to the level of effort required.
Part two: importance for aging and cognitive function
→ We understand that a more developed aMCC is essential for aging, improved cognitive function, better emotional regulation, better willpower.
So, → in future iterations, I have more resource capacity in the aMCC.
Thus, → I am improving higher processes, I am — scientifically speaking — building my internal willpower.
If we oversimplify , we could reasonably conclude therefore that forcing ourselves to take really cold showers (god, I do not want to do that) or going for early morning walks when we’d rather stay in bed, will help us better manage conflict, help us age successfully, and improve our emotional-regulation*. Of course, both cold showers and early morning walks come with their own benefits, so really it’s a 2-for-1.
Crucially, research so far suggests that if you actually start to enjoy those things, the aMCC activation largely goes away! (4). So, we need to switch it up as we adapt to a greater level of motivation and self-restraint, to get the same neurological benefits.
Morality, ethics, belief in a just world, and the aMCC
The belief in a just world (BJW), or just-world fallacy, is ultimately a cognitive bias whereby individuals inherently need to believe that the world is fair, even in the face of inequality and injustice. It’s the idea that “you get what you deserve”, and it’s a common framework for making sense of things and assigning ethical / moral value to actions, e.g., doing noble things will be rewarded, doing evil things will be punished (linked to karma, destiny, divine providence).
It’s a concept that exists in ancient philosophy, but is largely empirically associated with Melvin J. Lerner and the social psychology movement of the 1960s.
So, why is this relevant? Well, a study found that BJW scores positively correlate with neural responses in the aMCC. It suggests that individuals with a stronger belief in the just world have a greater activation of neural activity in the aMCC when they perceive rewards as being fair, or earned. (5)
The idea that our beliefs about justice and fairness influence our neurological processing is really important. We are starting to understand that our neural circuits are adaptive in social contexts, and that “deeply ingrained” (literally, biologically) perceptions can and will impact our ability to make decisions, to take action, to age successfully.
So, what’s next?
For us — as individuals — we should try and leverage the insights of research regarding the aMCC. Based on current papers, there are some clear things we should try and do:
- Force yourself to engage in the things you don’t want to do, but need to do. It may actually be biologically beneficial.
- Prioritise sleep and meditative practice (pain — be that physical or emotional — and tiredness majorly impact our automatic functions, including the aMCC)
- Huberman recommends ‘micro-sucks’, which means picking something you don’t want to do that is not particularly consequential and committing to it (e.g., extending your fast period, adding a sprint to a work-out, ticking off an annoying long-term to-do item).
For the scientific community, there is more work to be done. In particular, there needs to be an improved understanding of the role of the aMCC in relation to adjacent brain regions, and in relation to its own anatomical boundaries.
We need to understand how the aMCC influences humans compared to other species, and be able to explain why there is so much individual variability (these concerns are discussed in some of the key studies, all linked in the footnotes).
Basic neuroscientific principles must be established before they can be translated in to formal therapeutic applications. Informally, we should all try and embed better practices — backed by science — in our day to day.
Hope you enjoyed this semi-philosophical exploration of a small but powerful part of the brain. I write about neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and data science more generally. You might like to check out some of my previous work below.
Footnotes
(1) The tenacious brain: How the anterior mid-cingulate contributes to achieving goals — ScienceDirect
(4) Motivation in the Service of Allostasis: The Role of anterior Mid Cingulate Cortex — PMC (nih.gov)
*Research doesn’t yet show a direct causal relationship between a specific activity and aMCC activation nor aMCC activation and strengthened aMCC over-time, hence, an over-simplication based on current scientific understanding. It’s also important to note that the aMCC is one part of a larger, complex system that contributes to self-discipline and motivation. These processes don’t happen in isolation, the aMCC being activated requires other brain regions and neurotransmitter systems to be engaged.
