Berger Joel I, Kawasaki Hiroto, Banks Matthew I, Kumar Sukhbinder, Howard Matthew A, Nourski Kirill V
bioRxiv. 2025 Mar 13:2025.03.12.642819. doi: 10.1101/2025.03.12.642819.
The insula is critical for integrating sensory information from the body with that arising from the environment. Although previous studies suggest that posterior insula is sensitive to sounds, auditory response properties of insula neurons have not previously been reported. Here, we provide the first report of a population of human single neuron data from the insula and provide comparative data from the primary auditory cortex, recorded intracranially from human participants during passive listening. In each condition, more than 330 single neurons were recorded in 11 participants. Almost a third of neurons in posterior insula and a smaller subset in anterior insula responded to simple tones and clicks. Responsive neurons were distributed throughout posterior and anterior insula and showed preferred frequency tuning. Onset latencies in the insula were similar to those in the primary auditory cortex but response durations were significantly shorter. Overall, these data highlight that insula neurons respond to auditory stimuli even in non-behaviorally relevant contexts and suggest an important contribution of audition to the postulated integrative functions of insular cortex.
脑岛对于整合来自身体的感觉信息与来自环境的感觉信息至关重要。尽管先前的研究表明脑岛后部对声音敏感，但此前尚未报道过脑岛神经元的听觉反应特性。在此，我们首次报告了来自脑岛的人类单神经元数据群体，并提供了在被动聆听期间从人类参与者颅内记录的初级听觉皮层的比较数据。在每种情况下，对11名参与者记录了超过330个单神经元。脑岛后部近三分之一的神经元以及脑岛前部较小的子集对简单音调及滴答声有反应。反应性神经元分布于整个脑岛后部和前部，并表现出偏好频率调谐。脑岛中的起始潜伏期与初级听觉皮层中的相似，但反应持续时间明显更短。总体而言，这些数据表明即使在与行为无关的背景下脑岛神经元也会对听觉刺激产生反应，并提示听觉对脑岛皮层假定的整合功能有重要贡献。
