PET studies have shown an association between changes in blood flow in the insular cortex and verbal memory. This study compared verbal memory profiles between a group of four right handed patients with right insular infarction and a group of six right handed patients with left insular infarction. Patient groups were comparable in age, education, and sex. Patients were administered memory tests...

The central role of the hypothalamus in the origination and/or processing of feeding-related stimuli may be modulated by the activity of other functional areas of the brain including the insular cortex (involved in enteroceptive monitoring) and the prefrontal cortex (involved in the inhibition of inappropriate response tendencies). Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), a marker of neuronal activ...

Acid-sensing ion channel 1a (ASIC1a) has been shown to play important roles in synaptic plasticity, learning and memory. Here we identify a crucial role for ASIC1a in long-term depression (LTD) at mouse insular synapses. Genetic ablation and pharmacological inhibition of ASIC1a reduced the induction probability of LTD without affecting that of long-term potentiation in the insular cortex. The d...

Functional imaging in humans and anatomical data in monkeys have implicated the insula as a multimodal sensory integrative brain region. The topography of insular connections is organized by its cytoarchitectonic regions. Previous attempts to measure the insula have utilized either indirect or automated methods. This study was designed to develop a reliable method for obtaining volumetric magne...

Little is known about projections from the cerebral cortex to the trigeminal mesencephalic nucleus (Vmes) which contains the cell bodies of primary sensory afferents innervating masticatory muscle spindles and periodontal ligaments of the teeth. To address this issue, we employed retrograde (Fluorogold, FG) and anterograde (biotinylated dextranamine, BDA) tracing techniques in the rat. After in...

The author deseribes two new microsurgical approaches to the insular cortex and putamen. With this new method we can revascularize the intraparenchymal territory of the lenticulostriate arteries.

Cortical spreading depression (SD) is a self-propagating wave of depolarization accompanied by a substantial disturbance of the ionic distribution between the intra- and extracellular compartments. Glial cells, including astrocytes, play critical roles in maintenance of the extracellular environment, including ionic distribution. Therefore, SD propagation in the cerebral cortex may depend on th...

Dyspnea is a prevalent and threatening cardinal symptom in many diseases including asthma. Whether patients suffering from dyspnea show habituation or sensitization toward repeated experiences of dyspnea is relevant for both quality of life and treatment success. Understanding the mechanisms, including the underlying brain activation patterns, that determine the dynamics of dyspnea perception s...

It is well known that the insular cortex is involved in the processing of painful input. The aim of this study was to evaluate the pain modulation role of the insular cortex during motor cortex stimulation (MCS). After inducing neuropathic pain (NP) rat models by the spared nerve injury method, we made a lesion on the rostral agranular insular cortex (RAIC) unilaterally and compared behaviorall...