Journal
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 4, Issue 2, Pages 207-212Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/84048
Keywords
-
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Changes in bodily states, particularly those mediated by the autonomic nervous system, are crucial to ongoing emotional experience. A theoretical model proposes a first-order autoregulatory representation of bodily state at the level of dorsal pens, and a second-order experience-dependent re-mapping of changes in bodily state within structures such as cingulate and medial parietal cortices. We tested these anatomical predictions using positron emission tomography and a human neurological model (pure autonomic failure), in which peripheral autonomic denervation prevents the emergence of autonomic responses. Compared to controls, we observed task-independent differences in activity of dorsal pens and context-induced differences in cingulate and medial parietal activity in PAF patients. An absence of afferent feedback concerning autonomically generated bodily states was associated with subtle impairments of emotional responses in PAF patients. Our findings provide empirical support for a theory proposing a hierarchical representation of bodily states.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available