Attentional processes in the human insula

脑岛是大脑中最神秘的区域之一。我们对它在人类中的功能的了解主要来自于非侵入性的功能成像技术，它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，脑岛经常被激活，无论涉及的感觉模式是什么，这可能归因于注意力的多个方面。事实上，脑岛被认为是多种功能网络中的关键结构，包括参与检测和过滤显著刺激的显著网络。然而，脑岛扮演的具体角色(S)仍不清楚，部分原因是传统功能神经成像技术的时间分辨率较低，以及限于脑岛的罕见脑部病变迄今限制了病变研究。我们的团队最初因其在岛叶癫痫和外科手术方面的专业知识而受到认可。在像我们这样罕见的专门癫痫中心，经常使用颅内电极直接探查脑岛，以便更好地描绘癫痫灶，而非侵入性技术无法做到。这些电极可以用来研究具有很高空间和时间分辨率的信息处理。此外，自过去15年以来，我们在我们的癫痫中心进行了近50例胰岛切除术，以治愈耐药癫痫患者。这种仅限于岛区的切除构成了研究人类岛叶功能的前所未有的机会。我们之前的实验涉及有创性脑电(IEEG)记录的患者和接受岛叶切除的患者，这使我们在脑岛研究中确立了领先地位。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记录来研究脑岛信息处理的时空动力学。其次，岛叶切除的患者将在不同的神经行为任务中进行评估，以研究岛叶在注意力表现中的具体作用。我们预计，我们的研究提案将通过帮助理解研究最少的大脑区域之一，并有助于更好地理解人类的注意过程，从而影响神经科学研究。

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.