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Cingulate gyrus

The cingulate gyrus is a gyrus on the medial surface of each hemisphere, just above the corpus callosum. It belongs to the limbic system and works in emotion and cognition. (OpenStax Behavioral Neuroscience, 1.4; Powell et al. 2018, Pract Neurol; StatPearls, Cingulate Cortex; Mahgoub et al. 2024, J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry; Neuroscience Online, Higher Cortical Functions: Association and Executive Processing)

Latin cortex cingularis, gyrus cinguli (Wikipedia, Cingulate cortex, CC BY-SA 4.0) · FMA62434 · Nervous system

The brain model seen from the left with the cortex faded, showing the cingulate gyrus highlighted on the inner face of the hemisphere.
The cingulate gyrus highlighted in the brain model, seen from the left through the faded cortex. Render: ScienceQuest, CC BY 4.0. Meshes: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0
The cingulate gyrus shown alone and seen from the left, a long curved gyrus.
The cingulate gyrus on its own, seen from the left. Render: ScienceQuest, CC BY 4.0. Meshes: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0

Open it in the Brain Explorer See it alone in 3D

Where is the cingulate gyrus?

With the parahippocampal gyrus, it is one of the cortical regions of the limbic lobe, which Neuroscience Online notes is not a true lobe. (Neuroscience Online, Overview of the Nervous System)

The limbic lobe also takes in the hippocampus, amygdala and septum. It serves memory, learning, drive-related behavior and emotion. (Neuroscience Online, Overview of the Nervous System)

What does the cingulate gyrus do?

Painful stimuli activate neurons in its rostral part. When hypnotic suggestion made a painful 50 °C water stimulus feel more or less unpleasant without changing how intense it felt, PET showed anterior cingulate activity changing with the unpleasantness while primary somatosensory cortex activity stayed the same. (Neuroscience Online, Somatosensory Processes and Pain Tracts and Sources; Rainville et al. 1997, Science)

The anterior cingulate cortex helps set the body’s arousal to fit the task. In one fMRI study, activity in its dorsal part tracked sympathetic control of heart rate, and three patients with damage to the anterior cingulate showed blunted arousal under mental stress. (OpenStax Behavioral Neuroscience, 13.3; Critchley et al. 2003, Brain)

Together with the dorsolateral prefrontal area, the cingulate cortex takes part in attention, planning, rule learning and memory. (Neuroscience Online, Higher Cortical Functions: Association and Executive Processing)

What does the cingulate gyrus connect to?

In the Papez circuit, the anterior thalamic nuclei connect to the cingulate cortex, which projects back to the entorhinal cortex of the parahippocampal gyrus and closes the loop. (Neuroscience Online, Limbic System: Hippocampus)

The cingulate cortex also projects to the temporal lobe cortex and the orbital cortex. (Neuroscience Online, Limbic System: Hippocampus)

The central nucleus of the amygdala reaches the anterior cingulate cortex through the ventral amygdalofugal pathway, one route by which you become aware of an emotion. (Neuroscience Online, Limbic System: Amygdala)

Where the sources differ

Sources disagree on what the limbic system includes: OpenStax Behavioral Neuroscience names the hippocampus, amygdala and cingulate gyrus and calls the list still up for debate. OpenStax Psychology 2e names the hippocampus, amygdala and hypothalamus as three of the most important parts. Neuroscience Online lists the hippocampal formation, amygdala, septal nuclei, cingulate cortex, and the entorhinal, perirhinal and parahippocampal cortex. (OpenStax Behavioral Neuroscience, 1.4; OpenStax Psychology 2e, 3.4; Neuroscience Online, Limbic System: Hippocampus)

Touches in this model

Measured on the BodyParts3D meshes: surfaces within 2 mm of the cingulate gyrus, nearest first, 12 of 18.

Sources

  1. OpenStax Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience, section 1.4, The Brain: Structure and Function. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Read 2026-10-25.
  2. Practical Neurology, Cingulate gyrus epilepsy, Pract Neurol 18, pages 447 to 454 (abstract, PMID 30100562). Powell R, Elwes R, Hamandi K, Mullatti N. Abstract read on Europe PMC; no reuse licence stated. Read 2026-10-25.
  3. StatPearls, Neuroanatomy, Cingulate Cortex (introduction, read as the abstract on Europe PMC, PMID 30725762). Jumah FR, Dossani RH. Abstract read on Europe PMC; no reuse licence stated. Read 2026-10-25.
  4. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, Functional parcellation of the cingulate gyrus by electrical cortical stimulation: a synthetic literature review and future directions, J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 95, pages 704 to 721 (abstract, PMID 38242679). Mahgoub R, Bayram AK, Spencer DD, Alkawadri R. Abstract read on Europe PMC; no reuse licence stated. Read 2026-10-25.
  5. Neuroscience Online, McGovern Medical School, Section 4, Chapter 9, Higher Cortical Functions: Association and Executive Processing. Anthony Wright, Ph.D.. Last update Last Review 07 July 2026. Open access; no reuse licence stated. Read 2026-10-25.
  6. Neuroscience Online, McGovern Medical School, Section 2, Chapter 1, Overview of the Nervous System. Nachum Dafny, Ph.D.. Last update Reviewed and revised 07 Oct 2020. Open access; no reuse licence stated. Read 2026-10-25.
  7. Neuroscience Online, McGovern Medical School, Section 2, Chapter 5, Somatosensory Processes. Patrick Dougherty, Ph.D. (content provided by Chieyeko Tsuchitani, Ph.D.). Last update Reviewed and revised 17 August 2026. Open access; no reuse licence stated. Read 2026-10-25.
  8. Neuroscience Online, McGovern Medical School, Section 2, Chapter 7, Pain Tracts and Sources. Nachum Dafny, Ph.D.. Last update Reviewed 20 July 2026. Open access; no reuse licence stated. Read 2026-10-25.
  9. Science, Pain affect encoded in human anterior cingulate but not somatosensory cortex, Science 277, pages 968 to 971 (abstract, PMID 9252330). Rainville P, Duncan GH, Price DD, Carrier B, Bushnell MC. Abstract read on Europe PMC; no reuse licence stated. Read 2026-10-25.
  10. OpenStax Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience, section 13.3, What Is the Contribution of Brain Structures in Emotional States?. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Read 2026-10-25.
  11. Brain, Human cingulate cortex and autonomic control: converging neuroimaging and clinical evidence, Brain 126, pages 2139 to 2152 (abstract, PMID 12821513). Critchley HD, Mathias CJ, Josephs O, O’Doherty J, Zanini S, Dewar BK, Cipolotti L, Shallice T, Dolan RJ. Abstract read on Europe PMC; no reuse licence stated. Read 2026-10-25.
  12. Neuroscience Online, McGovern Medical School, Section 4, Chapter 5, Limbic System: Hippocampus. Anthony Wright, Ph.D.. Last update Revised 07 July 2026. Open access; no reuse licence stated. Read 2026-10-25.
  13. Neuroscience Online, McGovern Medical School, Section 4, Chapter 6, Limbic System: Amygdala. Anthony Wright, Ph.D.. Last update Revised 20 July 2026. Open access; no reuse licence stated. Read 2026-10-25.
  14. OpenStax Psychology 2e, section 3.4, The Brain and Spinal Cord. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Read 2026-10-25.

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