Evidence for a large-scale brain system supporting allostasis and interoception in humans

Ian R. Kleckner, Jiahe Zhang, Alexandra Touroutoglou, Lorena Chanes, Chenjie Xia, W. Kyle Simmons, Karen S. Quigley, Bradford C. Dickerson, Lisa Feldman Barrett

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

366 Scopus citations

Abstract

Large-scale intrinsic brain systems have been identified for exteroceptive senses (such as sight, hearing and 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 insights for the brain's functional architecture, dissolving the artificial boundary between mind and body, and unifying mental and physical illness.

Original languageEnglish
Article number0069
JournalNature Human Behaviour
Volume1
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 Apr 2017
Externally publishedYes

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