Department of Neuroscience, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1065, New York, NY 10029, USA.
Brain Struct Funct. 2010 Jun;214(5-6):477-93. doi: 10.1007/s00429-010-0264-y. Epub 2010 May 29.
The human insular cortex is involved in a variety of viscerosensory, visceromotor, and interoceptive functions, and plays a role in complex processes such as emotions, music, and language. Across mammals, the insula has considerable morphologic variability. We review the structure and connectivity of the insula in laboratory animals (mouse, domestic cat, macaque monkey), and we present original data on the morphology and cytoarchitecture of insular cortex in less common species including a large carnivore (the Atlantic walrus, Odobenus rosmarus), two artiodactyls (the pigmy hippopotamus, Hexaprotodon liberiensis, and the Western bongo, Tragelaphus eurycerus), two cetaceans (the beluga whale, Delphinapterus leucas, and the minke whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata), and a sirenian (the Florida manatee, Trichechus manatus latirostris). The insula shows substantial variability in shape, extent, and gyral and sulcal patterns, as well as differences in laminar organization, cellular specialization, and structural association with the claustrum. Our observations reveal that the insular cortex is extremely variable among mammals. These differences could be related to the role exerted by specific and selective pressures on cortical structure during evolution. We conclude that it is not possible to identify a general model of organization for the mammalian insular cortex.
人类脑岛参与多种内脏感觉、内脏运动和内脏感知功能，并在情绪、音乐和语言等复杂过程中发挥作用。在哺乳动物中，脑岛具有相当大的形态变异性。我们回顾了实验室动物（小鼠、家猫、猕猴）的脑岛结构和连接，并展示了包括大型食肉动物（大西洋海象，Odobenus rosmarus）、两种偶蹄目动物（侏河马，Hexaprotodon liberiensis 和西部大羚羊，Tragelaphus eurycerus）、两种鲸目动物（白鲸，Delphinapterus leucas 和小须鲸，Balaenoptera acutorostrata）和一种海牛目动物（佛罗里达海牛，Trichechus manatus latirostris）在内的不常见物种的脑岛形态和细胞构筑的原始数据。脑岛在形状、范围和脑回和脑沟模式上具有很大的可变性，以及在层组织、细胞特化和与屏状核的结构关联方面存在差异。我们的观察结果表明，哺乳动物的脑岛皮层在形态上存在很大的变异性。这些差异可能与特定和选择性压力在进化过程中对皮质结构的作用有关。我们的结论是，不可能确定哺乳动物脑岛的一般组织模型。
