The Mysterious Island: Insula and Its Dual Function in Sleep and Wakefulness
In the recent sleep studies, it was shown that afferentation of many cortical areas switches during sleep to the interoceptive one. However, it was unclear whether the insular cortex, which is often considered as the main cortical visceral representation, maintains the same effective connectivity in...
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2021-02-01
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doaj-7e7de70391a64a1fa29f87dec89d03dd2021-02-11T04:51:36ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience1662-51372021-02-011410.3389/fnsys.2020.592660592660The Mysterious Island: Insula and Its Dual Function in Sleep and WakefulnessEkaterina V. Levichkina0Ekaterina V. Levichkina1Irina I. Busygina2Marina L. Pigareva3Ivan N. Pigarev4Institute for Information Transmission Problems (Kharkevich Institute), Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, RussiaDepartment of Optometry and Vision Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, AustraliaPavlov Institute of Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, RussiaInstitute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, RussiaInstitute for Information Transmission Problems (Kharkevich Institute), Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, RussiaIn the recent sleep studies, it was shown that afferentation of many cortical areas switches during sleep to the interoceptive one. However, it was unclear whether the insular cortex, which is often considered as the main cortical visceral representation, maintains the same effective connectivity in both states of vigilance, or processes interoceptive information predominantly in one state. We investigated neuronal responses of the cat insular cortex to electrical stimulations of the intestinal wall delivered during wakefulness and natural sleep. Marked increase was observed in the number of insular neurons responding to this stimulation in sleep comparing to wakefulness, and enlarged amplitudes of evoked local field potentials were found as well. Moreover, most of the cells responding to intestinal stimulation in wakefulness never responded to identical stimuli during sleep and vice versa. It was also shown that applied low intensity intestinal stimulations had never compromised sleep quality. In addition, experiments with microstimulation of the insular cortex and recording of intestinal myoelectric activity demonstrated that effective insula-to-gut propagation also happened only during sleep. On the other hand, the same insular stimulations in wakefulness led to contractions of orofacial muscles. The evoked face movements gradually disappeared in the course of sleep development. These findings demonstrate that pattern of efficient afferent and efferent connections of the insular cortex changes with transition from wakefulness to sleep.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnsys.2020.592660/fullinsular cortexwakefulnesssleepvisceral regulationvisceral theory of sleepgut-brain communication |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Ekaterina V. Levichkina Ekaterina V. Levichkina Irina I. Busygina Marina L. Pigareva Ivan N. Pigarev |
spellingShingle |
Ekaterina V. Levichkina Ekaterina V. Levichkina Irina I. Busygina Marina L. Pigareva Ivan N. Pigarev The Mysterious Island: Insula and Its Dual Function in Sleep and Wakefulness Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience insular cortex wakefulness sleep visceral regulation visceral theory of sleep gut-brain communication |
author_facet |
Ekaterina V. Levichkina Ekaterina V. Levichkina Irina I. Busygina Marina L. Pigareva Ivan N. Pigarev |
author_sort |
Ekaterina V. Levichkina |
title |
The Mysterious Island: Insula and Its Dual Function in Sleep and Wakefulness |
title_short |
The Mysterious Island: Insula and Its Dual Function in Sleep and Wakefulness |
title_full |
The Mysterious Island: Insula and Its Dual Function in Sleep and Wakefulness |
title_fullStr |
The Mysterious Island: Insula and Its Dual Function in Sleep and Wakefulness |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Mysterious Island: Insula and Its Dual Function in Sleep and Wakefulness |
title_sort |
mysterious island: insula and its dual function in sleep and wakefulness |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience |
issn |
1662-5137 |
publishDate |
2021-02-01 |
description |
In the recent sleep studies, it was shown that afferentation of many cortical areas switches during sleep to the interoceptive one. However, it was unclear whether the insular cortex, which is often considered as the main cortical visceral representation, maintains the same effective connectivity in both states of vigilance, or processes interoceptive information predominantly in one state. We investigated neuronal responses of the cat insular cortex to electrical stimulations of the intestinal wall delivered during wakefulness and natural sleep. Marked increase was observed in the number of insular neurons responding to this stimulation in sleep comparing to wakefulness, and enlarged amplitudes of evoked local field potentials were found as well. Moreover, most of the cells responding to intestinal stimulation in wakefulness never responded to identical stimuli during sleep and vice versa. It was also shown that applied low intensity intestinal stimulations had never compromised sleep quality. In addition, experiments with microstimulation of the insular cortex and recording of intestinal myoelectric activity demonstrated that effective insula-to-gut propagation also happened only during sleep. On the other hand, the same insular stimulations in wakefulness led to contractions of orofacial muscles. The evoked face movements gradually disappeared in the course of sleep development. These findings demonstrate that pattern of efficient afferent and efferent connections of the insular cortex changes with transition from wakefulness to sleep. |
topic |
insular cortex wakefulness sleep visceral regulation visceral theory of sleep gut-brain communication |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnsys.2020.592660/full |
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