Attentional processes in the human insula

脑岛是大脑中最神秘的区域之一。我们对其在人类中的功能的了解主要来自于提供神经活动间接标记的非侵入性功能成像技术。然而，在使用这种神经成像技术的研究中，无论涉及的感觉模式如何，都有规律地激活脑岛，这可能归因于在注意的多个方面的作用。事实上，脑岛被认为是多种功能网络的关键结构，包括参与显著刺激检测和过滤的显著网络。然而，脑岛所起的具体作用尚不清楚，部分原因是传统功能性神经成像技术的时间分辨率较低，而且由于局限于脑岛的脑病变罕见，迄今为止的病变研究受到限制。我们的团队首先因其在岛状癫痫和手术方面的专业知识而得到认可。在像我们这样罕见的癫痫专科中心，在非侵入性技术无法做到的情况下，经常使用颅内电极对脑岛进行直接探测，以更好地描绘癫痫病灶。这些电极可以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，在过去的15年里，我们已经在我们的癫痫中心进行了近50例岛切除治疗耐药癫痫患者。这种仅限于岛屿区域的切除为研究人类岛屿功能提供了前所未有的机会。我们之前的实验涉及有创脑电图（iEEG）记录的患者，并进行了岛岛切除术，这使我们成为岛岛研究的领导者。我们希望继续探索脑岛的作用和功能，特别是在注意过程中使用两种不同的互补技术。首先，我们将使用癫痫患者执行注意力任务的脑电图记录来研究脑岛信息处理的时空动态。其次，对脑岛切除术患者进行不同神经行为任务评估，研究脑岛在注意力表现中的具体作用。我们希望我们的研究计划能够通过帮助理解研究最少的大脑区域之一来影响神经科学研究，并有助于更好地理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.