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Chapter 6 - Interoceptive Integration in the Primate Insular Cortex

from Section 1 - The Human Insula from an Epileptological Standpoint

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2022

By
Henry C. Evrard
Edited by
Dang Nguyen ,
Jean Isnard  and
Philippe Kahane
Dang Nguyen
Affiliation:
Université de Montréal
Jean Isnard
Affiliation:
Claude Bernard University Lyon
Philippe Kahane
Affiliation:
Grenoble-Alpes University Hospital
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Summary

The functional organization of the primate insula is shaped by interoceptive afferents encoding ongoing homeostatic bodily states. A differential posterior, middle, and anterior integration of these afferents with somatomotor, environmental, autonomic, and hedonic activities has been proposed to culminate in an ultimate representation of subjective feelings in the anterior insula in humans. Recent examinations of the insula in macaque monkeys indicate that such integration could occur within a consistent postero-anterior and dorso-ventral latticework pattern. The disproportionate expansion of the anterior insula in humans could have been accompanied by an enrichment of high-order homeostatic representations associated with motoric and autonomic efferent output and with the descriptively less distinct but arousing sensations underlying subjective feelings.

Keywords

interoceptive integrationascending pathwayinsular primary cortexsimian
Type
Chapter
Information
Insular Epilepsies , pp. 52 - 66
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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