Attentional processes in the human insula

大脑皮层是最神秘的大脑区域之一。我们对它在人类中的功能的理解主要来自非侵入性功能成像技术，这些技术提供了神经活动的间接标记。然而，在使用这种神经成像技术的研究中，无论涉及何种感觉方式，都有规律地激活了大脑皮层，这可能归因于注意力的多个方面。事实上，突触被认为是多功能网络中的关键结构，包括参与检测和过滤显着刺激的显着网络。然而，特定的作用（S）所发挥的丘脑仍然不清楚，部分原因是由于传统的功能性神经影像技术的时间分辨率低，因为罕见的脑病变局限于丘脑病变的研究。我们的团队首次因其在岛叶癫痫和手术方面的专业知识而获得认可。在像我们这样的罕见的专门癫痫中心，当非侵入性技术不能更好地描绘癫痫病灶时，经常使用颅内电极直接探查癫痫病灶。这些电极可用于研究具有非常高的空间和时间分辨率的信息处理。此外，自过去15年以来，我们在癫痫中心进行了近50例岛叶切除术，以治愈耐药癫痫患者。这种局限于岛叶区域的切除为研究人类岛叶功能提供了前所未有的机会。我们之前的实验涉及侵入性EEG（iEEG）记录和岛叶切除术的患者，使我们能够成为脑卒中研究的领导者。 我们希望继续我们的角色和功能的探索，特别是在注意过程中使用两种不同的和互补的技术。首先，我们将使用癫痫患者在执行注意任务时的iEEG记录来研究癫痫患者大脑中信息处理的时空动力学。其次，岛叶切除术患者将在不同的神经行为任务进行评估，以研究大脑皮层在注意力表现中的具体作用。 我们希望我们的研究提案能够通过帮助了解研究最少的大脑区域之一来影响神经科学研究，并有助于更好地了解人类的注意力过程。

The insula is one of the most enigmatic brain regions. Our understanding of its functions in humans mainly comes from non-invasive functional imaging techniques providing indirect markers of neural activity. Yet, the insula is regularly activated in studies using such neuroimaging techniques, no matter the sensory modality involved, which may be attributable to a role in multiple aspects of attention. Indeed, the insula is thought to be a key structure in multiple functional networks, including the salience network involved in the detection and filtering of salient stimuli. However, the specific role(s) played by the insula remains unclear, partly due to the low temporal resolution of traditional functional neuroimaging techniques, and because the rarity of brain lesions restricted to the insula has limited lesion studies to date. Our team was first recognized for its expertise in insular epilepsy and surgery. In rare specialized epilepsy centers such as ours, direct exploration of the insula using intracranial electrodes is regularly performed to better delineate the epileptic focus when non-invasive techniques cannot. These electrodes can be used to study information processing with very high spatial and temporal resolution. Furthermore, we have performed nearly 50 insular resections to cure drug-resistant epileptic patients at our epilepsy center since the last 15 years. Such resections limited to insular areas constitute an unprecedented opportunity to study insular functions in humans. Our prior experiments involving patients with invasive EEG (iEEG) recordings and who had insular resection allowed us to establish as leaders in insula research. We wish to pursue our exploration of the role and functions of the insula, notably in attentional processes using two different and complementary techniques. First, we will use iEEG recordings in epileptic patients performing attention tasks to study the spatio-temporal dynamics of information processing in the insula. Secondly, patients with insular resection will be assessed on different neurobehavioral tasks to study the specific role of the insula in attention performance. We expect our research proposal to impact neuroscience research by helping understand one of the least studied brain regions, and by contributing to a better understanding of attentional processes in humans.