TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kleint, Nina I.
A1  - Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich
A1  - Lueken, Ulrike
T1  - Probing the interoceptive network by listening to heartbeats: an fMRI study
JF  - PLoS ONE
N2  - Exposure to cues of homeostatic relevance (i.e. heartbeats) is supposed to increase the allocation of attentional resources towards the cue, due to its importance for self-regulatory, interoceptive processes. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study aimed at determining whether listening to heartbeats is accompanied by activation in brain areas associated with interoception, particularly the insular cortex. Brain activity was measured with fMRI during cue-exposure in 36 subjects while listening to heartbeats vs. sinus tones. Autonomic markers (skin conductance) and subjective measures of state and trait anxiety were assessed. Stimulation with heartbeat sounds triggered activation in brain areas commonly associated with the processing of interoceptive information, including bilateral insular cortices, the inferior frontal operculum, and the middle frontal gyrus. A psychophysiological interaction analysis indicated a functional connectivity between the middle frontal gyrus (seed region) and bilateral insular cortices, the left amygdala and the supplementary motor area. The magnitude of neural activation in the right anterior insular cortex was positively associated with autonomic arousal. The present findings indicate that listening to heartbeats induced activity in areas of the interoception network as well as changes in psychophysiological arousal and subjective emotional experience. As this approach constitutes a promising method for studying interoception in the fMRI environment, a clinical application in anxiety prone populations should be addressed by future studies.
KW  - inferior parietal lobule
KW  - brain activation
KW  - cortex
KW  - awareness
KW  - perception
KW  - cardiovascular arousal
KW  - panic disorder
KW  - humans
KW  - anterior insula
KW  - emotional experience
Y1  - 2015
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-148330
VL  - 10
IS  - 7
ER  -