RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Evidence for a Large-Scale Brain System Supporting Allostasis and Interoception in Humans
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 098970
DO 10.1101/098970
A1 Ian R. Kleckner
A1 Jiahe Zhang
A1 Alexandra Touroutoglou
A1 Lorena Chanes
A1 Chenjie Xia
A1 W. Kyle Simmons
A1 Karen S. Quigley
A1 Bradford C. Dickerson
A1 Lisa Feldman Barrett
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/01/10/098970.abstract
AB Large-scale intrinsic brain systems have been identified for exteroceptive senses (e.g., sight, hearing, touch). We introduce an analogous system for representing sensations from within the body, called interoception, and demonstrate its relation to regulating peripheral systems in the body, called allostasis. Employing the recently introduced Embodied Predictive Interoception Coding (EPIC) model, we used tract-tracing studies of macaque monkeys, followed by two intrinsic functional magnetic resonance imaging samples (N = 280 and N = 270) to evaluate the existence of an intrinsic allostatic/interoceptive system in the human brain. Another sample (N = 41) allowed us to evaluate the convergent validity of the hypothesized allostatic/interoceptive system by showing that individuals with stronger connectivity between system hubs performed better on an implicit index of interoceptive ability related to autonomic fluctuations. Implications include novel insights for the brain’s functional architecture, dissolving the artificial boundary between mind and body, and unifying mental and physical illness.