Table 1. Examples for areas involved in “bottom-up” and “top-down” brain circuits.

Brain region	Study reference
Bottom-up
lateral orbitofrontal cortex, putamen/anteroventral striatum, insula, thalamus	Frank et al., 2012
caudate, supplementary motor area, precentral gyrus	Brooks et al., 2011
caudate, striatum, hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus, cerebellum	Sanders et al., 2015
ventral striatum, cingulate cortex, putamen	Cowdrey et al., 2011
insula, ventral and dorsal striatum	Wagner et al., 2008
Top-down
medial and lateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate	Sanders et al., 2015
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex	Brooks et al., 2011; Frank et al., 2012
medial prefrontal cortex	Cowdrey et al., 2011; Uher et al., 2003; Uher et al., 2004
The insula is often considered a “hub” connecting bottom-up and top-down areas (Brooks et al., 2011)