Anatomical and functional correlations of interoceptive dimensions in neurodegeneration and stroke

GARCÍA CORDERO INDIRA; FORNO GONZALO; TORRALVA TERESA; YORIS ADRIAN; SALAMONE PAULA; IBAÑEZ AGUSTIN; DE LA FUENTE LAURA; SEDEÑO LUCAS; RODRIGUEZ CLARA; FERRARI JESICA; BAEZ SANDRA; MOGUILNER SEBASTIAN; MELLONI MARGHERITA; ESTEVES SOL; GARCIA ADOLFO; MANES FACUNDO

Buenos Aires

Encuentro; 20th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness; 2016

Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness

Interoception, the ability to sense autonomic changes via viscero-cortical pathways, encompasses multiple dimensions and relies on widespread neural hubs. Methods: we assessed cardiac interoceptive accuracy, learning, and awareness through the heartbeat detection task (HBD) in healthy subjects and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), Alzheimer?s disease (AD), and fronto-insular stroke patients. Neural correlates of the three dimensions were examined through structural and functional resting-state imaging and online measurements of the heart-evoked potential (HEP). Results: The three patient groups presented deficits in interoceptive accuracy, associated to insular affectation, connectivity alterations, and abnormal HEP modulations. Interoceptive learning was differentially impaired in AD patients, suggesting a key role of memory skill. Interoceptive awareness results showed that bvFTD and AD patients overestimated their performance, associated to abnormal frontal networks engaged in to metacognitive processes. Discussion: Our findings demonstrate that damage in specific hubs in the broad fronto-temporo-insular networks produce alterations of body sensing, offering new theoretical insights into neuroanatomical foundations of interoceptive dimensions. [Work partially supported by CONICET, CONICYT/FONDECYT Regular (1130920), COLCIENCIAS (1115-545-31374 and 1115-569-33858), FONCyT-PICT 2012-0412, FONCyT-PICT 2012-1309, FONDAP 15150012, and INECO Foundation.]