Table 2.

Major brain regions implicated in apathy: Functional roles and clinical associations.

Brain region	Primary function	Association with apathy
Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)	Executive planning, cognitive flexibility	Impaired executive functioning; reduced goal-setting
Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)	Effort-based decision-making, action initiation	Decreased motivation; deficits in reward processing
Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)	Social cognition, reward valuation	Emotional blunting; diminished social engagement
Ventral striatum	Reward anticipation, hedonic processing	Lack of anticipatory pleasure; reduced drive for action
Medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)	Self-referential processing, initiation of actions	Difficulty initiating voluntary behavior; amotivation