Interoceptive cortex in the posterior insula: comment on Garcia-Larrea et al. 2010 Brain 133, 2528

摘要

Sir, In a recent publication in Brain, Garcia-Larrea et al. (2010) reported their identification of patients with post-stroke central pain and selective thermosensory dysfunction, but without other somatosensory abnormalities, and they suggested that the basis for such dissociated symptoms might be the presence of a ‘third somatosensory area’ specifically supporting temperature sensation in the operculo-insular region. In actuality, prior findings, which they did not cite, provide solid neurobiological evidence that the dorsal posterior insula contains the primary cortical sensory representation of temperature and pain in humans; indeed, these previous findings explain perfectly well these and other clinical observations by Garcia-Larrea and colleagues.