Functional connectivity of the human insular cortex during noxious and innocuous thermal stimulation
Abstract
The insula plays a key role in brain processing of noxious and innocuous thermal stimuli. The anterior and the posterior portions of the insular cortex are involved in different ways in nociceptive and thermoceptive processing. Therefore, their stimulus-specific functional connectivity may also differ. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the activity and functional connectivity of insular cortex subregions during noxious and innocuous thermal stimulation. In 11 healthy subjects, psychophysically controlled noxious and innocuous warm and cold stimuli were applied to the left forearm. To differentiate between the subregions of the insular cortex involved in pain processing and those involved in temperature processing, a 2×2 factorial fMRI analysis was performed. Pain processing insular areas (main effect of pain) were detected in bilateral aINS and contralateral pINS. Temperature processing insular areas (main effect of temperature) were also found in bilateral aINS and contralateral pINS. The individual signal time courses from the pain- and temperature processing insular activation clusters were used for calculation and comparison of stimulus-specific functional connectivity of aINS and pINS by means of a correlation analysis. As expected, both aINS and pINS were functionally connected to a large brain network - which predominantly includes areas involved in nociception and thermoception: primary (S1) and secondary (S2) somatosensory corti…
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AIC and other insular subregions work closely coupled with other brain regions and networks to translate different modalities of information into subjective awareness.
“On the contrary, AIC as well as other subregions of the insular cortex work closely coupled with other brain regions and networks (Cauda et al., 2011; Deen et al., 2011; Peltz et al., 2011) to translate different modalities of information effectively into subjective awareness.”
From Anterior insular cortex and emotional awareness (2013) · cites this paper as Peltz et al., 2011
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- Authors
- Peltz, E., Seifert, F., DeCol, R., Dörfler, A., Schwab, S., & Maihöfner, C.
- Affiliations
- Universitätsklinikum Erlangen (DE)
- Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Maihöfner, Christian
- Venue
- NeuroImage
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-01
- Volume
- 54
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 1324-1335
- ISSN
- 1053-8119 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1980077460
- Cited by
- 175
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 7.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- NeuroImage (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (KFO 130)
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Pain Mechanisms and Treatments
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Pain Management and Placebo Effect
- Keywords
- insula, anterior insula, posterior insula, functional connectivity, noxious thermal stimulation, pain processing, thermosensation, somatosensory cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex, primary motor cortex, secondary somatosensory cortex
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Cold Temperature, Female, Hot Temperature, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Neural Pathways, Pain, Physical Stimulation
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