Those subjects showed far more activity in a part of the brain the anterior cingulate cortex thought to be a center of anxiety.

WSJ: Anxiety Can Bring Out the Best

Another suggests hypnotherapy may have an impact on a part of the brain which processes pain called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).

BBC: Hypnotherapy session

When they were faced with tossing or keeping their own items, the hoarders' brain responses also differed from that of the other participants: they showed excessive activation in the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain region involved with decision-making, particularly in situations involving conflicting information or uncertainty.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Interestingly, however, when people with hoarding disorder made similar decisions about discarding junk mail that didn't belong to them, they again showed unusual levels of activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and insula but in this case, their brain activity was much lower than normal.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

In a 2013 study, Kent Kiehl of the University of New Mexico, looking at a population of 96 male offenders in the state's prison system, found that in the four years after their release, those with low activity in the anterior cingulate cortex a brain area involved in regulating behavior were twice as likely to commit another offense as those who had high activity in this region.

WSJ: Neurocriminology: Inside the Criminal Mind

For the most part, the regions are in the frontal cortex the overhang of brain behind the eyes and include the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the anterior prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate, and the right and left inferior frontal gyri.

NEWYORKER: Don��t!

The brains of lying subjects light up in particular places notably the anterior cingulate gyrus and left prefrontal cortex in ways that they do not in the honest.

ECONOMIST: Lie detection