Neural Mechanisms of Interoceptive Representation and Regulation

内感受表征和调节的神经机制

• 批准号: RGPIN-2015-05901
• 负责人: Farb, Norman
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=682627
• 关键词: Neural; Mechanisms; Interoceptive; Representation; Regulation

The human brain continuously updates representations of one's internal body state, a process known as interoception. The long-term goals of this research program are to understand the neural mechanisms supporting interoception and how to efficiently and objectively assess interoceptive capacity. Using behavioral, psychophysiological, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methods, we intend to examine the psychological and neural bases for how interoception integrates physiology with cognition to inform emotional experience, and ultimately how these processes shape subjective awareness. Furthermore, we will examine whether interoceptive attention constitutes a form of arousal regulation that may be used to achieve valued physiological states. Consideration of emotion in terms of its physical, neural, and cognitive components will provide a more complete understanding of human emotion.******The neuroscience model to be tested is informed by the applicant's prior work, suggesting an interoceptive pathway from primary representation in the posterior insula to integration with motivational context in the anterior insula and adjacent prefrontal cortex. To experimentally characterize these networks, 4 clusters of research are proposed. First, we will use a novel experimental paradigm that relies on discrimination of respiratory sensation to better characterize individual differences in interoceptive capacity. Second, we will examine the impact of interoceptive attention on emotional experience, from both transient interoceptive attention and as chronically cultivated through mindfulness training programs, testing the hypothesis that the intensity of emotional experience is a product of its interoceptive tone. Third, we will examine the neural correlates of interoceptive and exteroceptive attention using these novel paradigms to better characterize the unique functional components of interoceptive processing in the brain. Finally, we will examine the impact of interoceptive attention on self-regulation, both in terms of structuring the physiological arousal's role in decision making and in terms of the resolution of such arousal following emotion provocation. ******This research addresses an age-old debate around the extent to which emotions originate in visceral body signals. It also informs our understanding of the temporal dynamics of affective experience, emotion regulation, and the role of conscious awareness in representing and regulating changes within the body.

人类大脑不断更新身体内部状态的表示，这一过程被称为内感。这项研究计划的长期目标是了解支持内感觉的神经机制，以及如何有效和客观地评估内感觉能力。利用行为、心理生理学和功能磁共振成像(FMRI)方法，我们打算研究内感觉如何将生理和认知结合起来形成情绪体验，以及最终这些过程如何塑造主观意识的心理和神经基础。此外，我们还将研究知觉间注意是否构成一种可用于实现有价值的生理状态的唤醒调节形式。从生理、神经和认知成分的角度考虑情绪将提供对人类情绪的更完整的理解。*待测试的神经科学模型是由申请人先前的工作提供信息的，提出了一条从后岛的主要表征到与前岛和邻近的前额叶皮质的动机背景相结合的内感通路。为了从实验上描述这些网络，提出了4个研究集群。首先，我们将使用一种新的实验范式，它依赖于对呼吸感觉的辨别，以更好地表征个体间感觉能力的差异。其次，我们将考察内感注意对情绪体验的影响，从短暂性内感注意和通过正念训练计划长期培养的内感注意两个方面来检验这一假设，即情绪体验的强度是内感语气的产物。第三，我们将使用这些新的范式来检验内感和外感注意的神经关联，以更好地表征大脑中内感加工的独特功能成分。最后，我们将从构建生理唤醒在决策中的作用和情绪刺激后唤醒的解决两个方面来考察内感注意对自我调节的影响。*这项研究解决了一个由来已久的争论，即情感在多大程度上源于内脏的身体信号。它还有助于我们理解情感体验、情感调节的时间动态，以及有意识意识在表示和调节身体内变化方面的作用。