Estimation of Current and Future Physiological States in Insular Cortex.


Author: Livneh Y1, Sugden AU1, Madara JC1, Essner RA2, Flores VI1, Sugden LA3, Resch JM1, Lowell BB4, Andermann ML5

Affiliation: <sup>1</sup>Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.

<sup>2</sup>Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

<sup>3</sup>Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA 15232, USA.

<sup>4</sup>Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: blowell@bidmc.harvard.edu.

<sup>5</sup>Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: manderma@bidmc.harvard.edu.
Conference/Journal: Neuron.
Date published: 2020 Jan 10
Other:
  Pages: S0896-6273(19)31093-1   ,  Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.12.027. [Epub ahead of print]   ,  Word Count: 175  
    Interoception, the sense of internal bodily signals, is essential for physiological homeostasis, cognition, and emotions. While human insular cortex (InsCtx) is implicated in interoception, the cellular and circuit mechanisms remain unclear. We imaged mouse InsCtx neurons during two physiological deficiency states: hunger and thirst. InsCtx ongoing activity patterns reliably tracked the gradual return to homeostasis but not changes in behavior. Accordingly, while artificial induction of hunger or thirst in sated mice via activation of specific hypothalamic neurons (AgRP or SFOGLUT) restored cue-evoked food- or water-seeking, InsCtx ongoing activity continued to reflect physiological satiety. During natural hunger or thirst, food or water cues rapidly and transiently shifted InsCtx population activity to the future satiety-related pattern. During artificial hunger or thirst, food or water cues further shifted activity beyond the current satiety-related pattern. Together with circuit-mapping experiments, these findings suggest that InsCtx integrates visceral-sensory signals of current physiological state with hypothalamus-gated amygdala inputs that signal upcoming ingestion of food or water to compute a prediction of future physiological state.



Published by Elsevier Inc.



PMID: 31955944  DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.12.027