Anatomical and functional correlations of interoceptive dimensions in neurodegeneration and stroke

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

Congreso; Association of the studying of consciousness; 2016

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.