Journal article
Persistence of Feelings and Sentience after Bilateral Damage of the Insula
Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. 1991), Vol.23(4), pp.833-846
04/2013
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhs077
PMCID: PMC3657385
PMID: 22473895
Abstract
It has been convincingly established, over the past decade, that the human insular cortices are involved in processing both body feelings (such as pain) and feelings of emotion. Recently, however, an interpretation of this finding has emerged suggesting that the insular cortices are the necessary and sufficient platform for human feelings, in effect, the sole neural source of feeling experiences. In this study, we investigate this proposal in a patient whose insular cortices were destroyed bilaterally as a result of Herpes simplex encephalitis. The fact that all aspects of feeling were intact indicates that the proposal is problematic. The signals used to assemble the neural substrates of feelings hail from different sectors of the body and are conveyed by neural and humoral pathways to complex and topographically organized nuclei of the brain stem, prior to being conveyed again to cerebral cortices in the somatosensory, insular, and cingulate regions. We suggest that the neural substrate of feeling states is to be found first subcortically and then secondarily repeated at cortical level. The subcortical level would ensure basic feeling states while the cortical level would largely relate feeling states to cognitive processes such as decision-making and imagination.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Persistence of Feelings and Sentience after Bilateral Damage of the Insula
- Creators
- Antonio Damasio - Department of Neurology, Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Iowa College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City IO 52246, USAHanna Damasio - Department of Neurology, Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Iowa College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City IO 52246, USADaniel Tranel - Department of Neurology, Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Iowa College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City IO 52246, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. 1991), Vol.23(4), pp.833-846
- DOI
- 10.1093/cercor/bhs077
- PMID
- 22473895
- PMCID
- PMC3657385
- NLM abbreviation
- Cereb Cortex
- ISSN
- 1047-3211
- eISSN
- 1460-2199
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/2013
- Academic Unit
- Neurology; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984002366102771
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