Department of Psychology, Keio University, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Department of Neurosurgery, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.
Cortex. 2021 Apr;137:271-281. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.01.011. Epub 2021 Feb 5.
The insular cortex is considered an important region for feeling emotions through interoception. Most studies that report the role of the insula in integrating interoception and emotion have used neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); however, there are limited neuropsychological studies. The effects of insular lesions on emotion and interoception have not been suitably investigated. In this study, we examined the role of the insular cortex in cardiac interoception and recognizing emotions from facial expressions by comparing them pre- and post-operatively in patients with glial tumors or brain metastases associated with the insular lobe. Although no significant difference in interoceptive accuracy was observed between the two phases, there were significant associations between the changes in interoceptive accuracy and sensitivity to expressions of anger and happiness. An increased error rate in the heartbeat counting task in the post-operation phase was associated with a decreased accuracy in recognizing anger and happiness. Since most patients had left insula lesions, generalizability of the findings to patients with right lesions is a future subject. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the change in interoception and emotion after insular resection in humans. The study results indicate that removal of the insula affects the recognition of emotions such as anger and happiness through interoceptive processing.
岛叶被认为是通过内感受来感受情绪的重要区域。大多数报告岛叶在整合内感受和情绪方面作用的研究都使用了神经影像学技术，如功能磁共振成像（fMRI）；然而，神经心理学研究有限。岛叶损伤对情绪和内感受的影响尚未得到适当研究。在这项研究中，我们通过比较胶质肿瘤或脑转移与岛叶相关的患者手术前后的情况，研究了岛叶皮层在心脏内感受和识别面部表情情绪中的作用。尽管在两个阶段之间没有观察到内感受准确性的显著差异，但内感受准确性的变化与对愤怒和幸福表情的敏感性之间存在显著关联。在术后阶段的心跳计数任务中，错误率增加与识别愤怒和幸福的准确性降低有关。由于大多数患者存在左侧岛叶病变，因此这些发现对右侧病变患者的普遍性是未来的课题。据我们所知，这是首次在人类中研究岛叶切除术后内感受和情绪变化的研究。研究结果表明，岛叶的切除会通过内感受处理影响对愤怒和幸福等情绪的识别。
