Meta-analytic clustering of the insular cortex: Characterizing the meta-analytic connectivity of the insula when involved in active tasks
Articolo
Data di Pubblicazione:
2012
Abstract:
The human insula has been parcellated on the basis of resting state functional connectivity and diffusion tensor
imaging. Little is known about the organization of the insula when involved in active tasks. We explored
this issue using a novel meta-analytic clustering approach. We queried the BrainMap database asking for papers
involving normal subjects that recorded activations in the insular cortex, retrieving 1305 papers, involving
22,872 subjects and a total of 2957 foci. Data were analyzed with several different methodologies, some of
which expressly designed for this work. We used meta-analytic connectivity modeling and meta-analytic
clustering of data obtained from the BrainMap database. We performed cluster analysis to subdivide the
insula in areas with homogeneous connectivity, and density analysis of the activated foci using Voronoi tessellation.
Our results confirm and extend previous findings obtained investigating the resting state connectivity
of the anterior–posterior and left–right insulae. They indicate, for the first time, that some blocks of the
anterior insula play the role of hubs between the anterior and the posterior insulae, as confirmed by their activation
in several different paradigms. This finding supports the view that the network to which the anterior
insula belongs is related to saliency detection. The insulae of both sides can be parcellated in two clusters, the
anterior and the posterior: the anterior is characterized by an attentional pattern of connectivity with frontal,
cingulate, parietal, cerebellar and anterior insular highly connected areas, whereas the posterior is characterized
by a more local connectivity pattern with connections to sensorimotor, temporal and posterior cingulate
areas. This antero–posterior subdivision, better characterized on the right side, results sharper with the connectivity
based clusterization than with the behavioral based clusterization. The circuits belonging to the anterior
insula are very homogeneous and their blocks in multidimensional scaling of MACM-based profiles are
in central position, whereas those belonging to the posterior insula, especially on the left, are located at the
periphery and sparse, thus suggesting that the posterior circuits bear a more heterogeneous connectivity. The
anterior cluster is mostly activated by cognition, whereas the posterior is mostly activated by interoception,
perception and emotion.
Tipologia CRIS:
03A-Articolo su Rivista
Keywords:
Meta analisi; attenzione; salienza; fMRI
Elenco autori:
Franco Cauda; Tommaso Costa; Diana M.E. Torta; Katiuscia Sacco; Federico D'Agata; Sergio Duca; Giuliano Geminiani; Peter T. Fox; Alessandro Vercelli
Link alla scheda completa:
Link al Full Text:
Pubblicato in: