The surgical targets that are utilized vary across institutions and involve lesions produced bilaterally in the anterior limb of the internal capsule (anterior capsulotomy), the supragenual anterior cingulate gyrus and cingulum (anterior cingulotomy), and the subgenual anterior cingulate gyrus and subcortical orbitofrontal white matter (subcaudate tractotomy) ^{1) 2)}.

The combination of bilateral cingulotomy and subcaudate tractotomy is known as limbic leucotomy