It is hypothesized that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is the generator of the ERN as evidenced by studies using source localization (Dehaene, Posner, & Tucker, 1994; Holroyd et al., 1998; van Veen & Carter, 2002), magnetoencephalography (W. H. Miltner et al., 2003), and intracerebral recording (Brazdil, Roman, Daniel, & Rektor, 2005). Additional confirmation of the relationship between the ERN and the ACC stems from human lesions studies showing that patients with ACC lesions have diminished ERNs (Stemmer, Segalowitz, Witzke, & Schonle, 2004) and from single-unit studies that show increased error potentials in the anterior cingulate cortex in monkeys (Gemba, Sasaki, & Brooks, 1986; Ito, Stuphorn, Brown, & Schall, 2003).
