[2] Neurons of the cingulum receive afferent fibers from the parts of the thalamus that are associated with the spinothalamic tract.

One such area of interest is the disruption of white matter in the posterior cingulum causing mild cognitive impairment.

The cingulum is a frontal association tract that could play a critical role because it connects sites repeatedly implicated in cognitive control.

Also variations in microstructure of a group of fibers in the rostral cingulum have been shown to be extremely sensitive to performance of cognitive control tasks.

White matter pathology of the cingulum represents one of the earliest changes in development of age-related dementia and is currently aiding researchers worldwide to discover more about this relationship.