The functional neuroanatomical organization of interoceptive dimensions: Multimodal evidence from neurodegeneration and stroke.

GARCÍA-CORDERO, INDIRA; LUCAS SEDEÑO; DE LA FUENTE, LAURA; FORNO, GONZALO; FERRARI, JESICA; TORRALVA, TERESA; RODRIGUEZ, CLARA; BAEZ, SANDRA; ADRIÁN YORIS; ESTEVES, SOL; MELLONI, MARGHERITA; PAULA SALAMONE; MANES, F.; GARCÍA, A. M.; AGUSTÍN IBAÑEZ

La Habana

Congreso; 18º IOP Congreso Mundial Habana; 2016

Interoception encompasses multiple dimensions and relies on widespread neural hubs. To examine neurocognitive processes in such a network, we assessed cardiac interoceptive accuracy, learning, and awareness in healthy subjects and patients offering contrastive lesion models of neurodegeneration and stroke: behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), Alzheimer?s disease (AD), and fronto-insular stroke. Neural correlates of the three dimensions were examined through structural and functional resting-state imaging and online measurements of the heart-evoked potential. 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 skills. Interoceptive awareness results showed that bvFTD and AD patients overestimated their performance, indexed by abnormal anterior regions and associated networks engaged in metacognitive processes, and probably related to well-established insight deficits in these population. Findings specify how damage to specific hubs in a broad fronto-temporo-insular network differentially compromises interoceptive dimensions, and how such disturbances affect widespread connections beyond those critical hubs. This is the first study in which a multiple lesion model reveals fine-grained alterations of body sensing, offering new theoretical insights into neuroanatomical foundations of interoceptive dimensions.