Anterior insular cortex plays a critical role in interoceptive attention
- Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, China
- Capital Normal University, China
- Queens College, The City University of New York, United States
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, United States
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, United States
- Peking University, China
Abstract
Accumulating evidence indicates that the anterior insular cortex (AIC) mediates interoceptive attention, which refers to attention towards physiological signals arising from the body. However, the necessity of the AIC in this process has not been demonstrated. Using a novel task that directs attention toward breathing rhythm, we assessed the involvement of the AIC in interoceptive attention in healthy participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging and examined the necessity of the AIC in interoceptive attention in patients with AIC lesions. Results showed that interoceptive attention was associated with increased AIC activation, as well as enhanced coupling between the AIC and somatosensory areas along with reduced coupling between the AIC and visual sensory areas. In addition, AIC activation was predictive of individual differences in interoceptive accuracy. Importantly, AIC lesion patients showed disrupted interoceptive discrimination accuracy and sensitivity. These results provide compelling evidence that AIC plays a critical role in interoceptive attention.
Data availability
Source data have been deposited in Dyrad, including behavioral data, fMRI data, and lesion patient data. Our Dyrad DOI is: doi:10.5061/dryad.5sj852c
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Data from: Anterior insular cortex plays a critical role in interoceptive attentionDryad Digital Repository, doi 10.5061/dryad.5sj852c.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Natural Science Foundation of China (81729001)
- Jin Fan
China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2016M600835)
- Qiong Wu
National Institute on Drug Abuse (1R01DA043695)
- Xiaosi Gu
National Natural Science Foundation of China (81328008)
- Jin Fan
National Natural Science Foundation of China (61690205)
- Yanhong Wu
National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH094305)
- Jin Fan
Research grant of 973 (973-2015CB351800)
- Yanhong Wu
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31771205)
- Yanhong Wu
National Institute on Drug Abuse (Intramul Research Program)
- Yihong Yang
Brain research Project of Beijing (Z16110002616014)
- Pinan Liu
Beijing Municipal Administration of Hospital Youth programs (QML20170503)
- Xingchao Wang
National Natural Science Foundation of China (81600931)
- Xingchao Wang
Capital Health Development Research Project of Beijing (2016-4-1074)
- Xingchao Wang
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Human subjects: All participants in fMRI study and in lesion study were gave written informed consent in accordance with the procedures and protocols approved by The Human Subjects Review Committee of Peking University and by The Institutional Review Board of the Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, respectively.
Copyright
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.
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Anterior insular cortex plays a critical role in interoceptive attention
eLife 8:e42265.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.42265
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