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Current Biology : CB Jun 2017Whether you see the person you are in love with, try to listen to your own heartbeat, suffer from a headache, or crave for a chocolate cookie, one part of your brain is...
Whether you see the person you are in love with, try to listen to your own heartbeat, suffer from a headache, or crave for a chocolate cookie, one part of your brain is sure to increase its activity strongly: the insular cortex. The insular cortex, or 'insula' for short, is part of the cerebral cortex. J.C. Reil, a German neurologist, first named this brain structure in the early 19 century. Subsequent research findings have implicated the insula in an overwhelming variety of functions ranging from sensory processing to representing feelings and emotions, autonomical and motor control, risk prediction and decision-making, bodily- and self-awareness, and complex social functions like empathy. How is one single brain area involved in so many different tasks? Is the insula comprised of several functional regions? How are these related? And, are there any common themes underlying the apparently so heterogeneous roles of the insula?
Topics: Cerebral Cortex; Humans; Mental Disorders; Neural Pathways
PubMed: 28633023
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.05.010 -
Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology :... Jul 2017The insular cortex, or "Island of Reil," is hidden deep within the lateral sulcus of the brain. Subdivisions within the insula have been identified on the basis of... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
The insular cortex, or "Island of Reil," is hidden deep within the lateral sulcus of the brain. Subdivisions within the insula have been identified on the basis of cytoarchitectonics, sulcal landmarks, and connectivity. Depending on the parcellation technique used, the insula can be divided into anywhere between 2 and 13 distinct subdivisions. The insula subserves a wide variety of functions in humans ranging from sensory and affective processing to high-level cognition. Here, we provide a concise summary of known structural and functional features of the human insular cortex with a focus on lesion case studies and recent neuroimaging evidence for considerable functional heterogeneity of this brain region.
Topics: Cerebral Cortex; Humans
PubMed: 28644199
DOI: 10.1097/WNP.0000000000000377 -
Psychological Medicine Jan 2019Psychopathy is a personality type characterized by both callous emotional dysfunction and deviant behavior that affects society in the form of actions that harm others.... (Review)
Review
Psychopathy is a personality type characterized by both callous emotional dysfunction and deviant behavior that affects society in the form of actions that harm others. Historically, researchers have been concerned with seeking data and arguments to support a neurobiological foundation of psychopathy. In the past few years, increasing research has begun to reveal brain alterations putatively underlying the enigmatic psychopathic personality. In this review, we describe the brain anatomical and functional features that characterize psychopathy from a synthesis of available neuroimaging research and discuss how such brain anomalies may account for psychopathic behavior. The results are consistent in showing anatomical alterations involving primarily a ventral system connecting the anterior temporal lobe to anterior and ventral frontal areas, and a dorsal system connecting the medial frontal lobe to the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus complex and, in turn, to medial structures of the temporal lobe. Functional imaging data indicate that relevant emotional flow breakdown may occur in both these brain systems and suggest specific mechanisms via which emotion is anomalously integrated into cognition in psychopathic individuals during moral challenge. Directions for future research are delineated emphasizing, for instance, the relevance of further establishing the contribution of early life stress to a learned blockage of emotional self-exposure, and the potential role of androgenic hormones in the development of cortical anomalies.
Topics: Antisocial Personality Disorder; Cerebral Cortex; Humans; Neuroimaging
PubMed: 30207255
DOI: 10.1017/S0033291718002507 -
Journal of Anatomy Sep 2019
Topics: Cerebral Cortex; Humans
PubMed: 31435944
DOI: 10.1111/joa.13000 -
Brain, Behavior and Evolution 2018Cerebral cortex and cerebellar cortex both vary enormously across species in their size and complexity of convolutions. We discuss the development and evolution of... (Review)
Review
Cerebral cortex and cerebellar cortex both vary enormously across species in their size and complexity of convolutions. We discuss the development and evolution of cortical structures in terms of anatomy and functional organization. We propose that the distinctive shapes of cerebral and cerebellar cortex can be explained by relatively few developmental processes, notably including mechanical tension along axons and dendrites. Regarding functional organization, we show how maps of myelin content in cerebral cortex are evolutionarily conserved across primates but differ in the proportion of cortex devoted to sensory, cognitive, and other functions. We summarize recent progress and challenges in (i) parcellating cerebral cortex into a mosaic of distinct areas, (ii) distinguishing cortical areas that correspond across species from those that are present in one species but not another, and (iii) using this information along with surface-based interspecies registration to gain deeper insights into cortical evolution. We also comment on the methodological challenges imposed by the differences in anatomical and functional organization of cerebellar cortex relative to cerebral cortex.
Topics: Animals; Biological Evolution; Cerebellar Cortex; Cerebral Cortex; Humans
PubMed: 30099464
DOI: 10.1159/000489943 -
The Journal of Physiology Jan 1962
Topics: Animals; Cats; Cerebral Cortex; Visual Cortex
PubMed: 14449617
DOI: 10.1113/jphysiol.1962.sp006837 -
The EMBO Journal May 2016One of the most prominent features of the human brain is the fabulous size of the cerebral cortex and its intricate folding. Cortical folding takes place during... (Review)
Review
One of the most prominent features of the human brain is the fabulous size of the cerebral cortex and its intricate folding. Cortical folding takes place during embryonic development and is important to optimize the functional organization and wiring of the brain, as well as to allow fitting a large cortex in a limited cranial volume. Pathological alterations in size or folding of the human cortex lead to severe intellectual disability and intractable epilepsy. Hence, cortical expansion and folding are viewed as key processes in mammalian brain development and evolution, ultimately leading to increased intellectual performance and, eventually, to the emergence of human cognition. Here, we provide an overview and discuss some of the most significant advances in our understanding of cortical expansion and folding over the last decades. These include discoveries in multiple and diverse disciplines, from cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating cortical development and neurogenesis, genetic mechanisms defining the patterns of cortical folds, the biomechanics of cortical growth and buckling, lessons from human disease, and how genetic evolution steered cortical size and folding during mammalian evolution.
Topics: Animals; Biomechanical Phenomena; Cerebral Cortex; Genetic Phenomena; Humans
PubMed: 27056680
DOI: 10.15252/embj.201593701 -
Cellular & Molecular Immunology Nov 2023To define the systemic neuroimmune interactions in health and disease, we recently suggested immunoception as a term that refers to the existence of bidirectional... (Review)
Review
To define the systemic neuroimmune interactions in health and disease, we recently suggested immunoception as a term that refers to the existence of bidirectional functional loops between the brain and the immune system. This concept suggests that the brain constantly monitors changes in immune activity and, in turn, can regulate the immune system to generate a physiologically synchronized response. Therefore, the brain has to represent information regarding the state of the immune system, which can occure in multiple ways. One such representation is an immunengram, a trace that is partially stored by neurons and partially by the local tissue. This review will discuss our current understanding of immunoception and immunengrams, focusing on their manifestation in a specific brain region, the insular cortex (IC).
Topics: Insular Cortex; Cerebral Cortex; Neurons
PubMed: 37386172
DOI: 10.1038/s41423-023-01051-8 -
Glia Aug 2015Radial glia cells play fundamental roles in the development of the cerebral cortex, acting both as the primary stem and progenitor cells, as well as the guides for... (Review)
Review
Radial glia cells play fundamental roles in the development of the cerebral cortex, acting both as the primary stem and progenitor cells, as well as the guides for neuronal migration and lamination. These critical functions of radial glia cells in cortical development have been discovered mostly during the last 15 years and, more recently, seminal studies have demonstrated the existence of a remarkable diversity of additional cortical progenitor cell types, including a variety of basal radial glia cells with key roles in cortical expansion and folding, both in ontogeny and phylogeny. In this review, we summarize the main cellular and molecular mechanisms known to be involved in cerebral cortex development in mouse, as the currently preferred animal model, and then compare these with known mechanisms in other vertebrates, both mammal and nonmammal, including human. This allows us to present a global picture of how radial glia cells and the cerebral cortex seem to have coevolved, from reptiles to primates, leading to the remarkable diversity of vertebrate cortical phenotypes.
Topics: Animals; Biological Evolution; Cerebral Cortex; Humans; Neuroglia
PubMed: 25808466
DOI: 10.1002/glia.22827 -
NeuroImage Apr 2018One of the most specific but also challenging properties of the brain is its topographic organization into distinct modules or cortical areas. In this paper, we first... (Review)
Review
One of the most specific but also challenging properties of the brain is its topographic organization into distinct modules or cortical areas. In this paper, we first review the concept of topographic organization and its historical development. Next, we provide a critical discussion of the current definition of what constitutes a cortical area, why the concept has been so central to the field of neuroimaging and the challenges that arise from this view. A key aspect in this discussion is the issue of spatial scale and hierarchy in the brain. Focusing on in-vivo brain parcellation as a rapidly expanding field of research, we highlight potential limitations of the classical concept of cortical areas in the context of multi-modal parcellation and propose a revised interpretation of cortical areas building on the concept of neurobiological atoms that may be aggregated into larger units within and across modalities. We conclude by presenting an outlook on the implication of this revised concept for future mapping studies and raise some open questions in the context of brain parcellation.
Topics: Animals; Atlases as Topic; Cerebral Cortex; Humans; Neuroimaging
PubMed: 28219775
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.02.018