Evidence for a Large-Scale Brain System Supporting Allostasis and Interoception in Humans
Kleckner IR · Zhang J · Touroutoglou A · Chanes L · Xia C · Simmons WK · Quigley KS · Dickerson BC · Barrett LF
Nature Human Behaviour · 2017
What the research tells us
Combining macaque tracing literature with human resting-state connectivity, the study proposes a large-scale system supporting allostasis and interoception. In a separate human sample, connectivity was associated with correspondence between subjective arousal and skin-conductance responses to images, providing correlational support for the proposed network.
Scope & interpretation
Functional connectivity does not establish direct anatomical connections or causal regulation. Vascular effects, brainstem resolution, cross-species mapping and sample selection constrain interpretation. Energy expenditure, allostatic load and individual recovery scores were not directly validated.
Study at a glance
- POPULATION & SAMPLE
- Discovery sample of 280 and replication sample of 270; 41 of 66 participants in the validation study had usable imaging and skin-conductance data.
- EXPOSURE / INTERVENTION / SUBJECT
- Resting-state fMRI and an image-evoked arousal task, interpreted alongside cross-species anatomical literature.
- OUTCOMES
- Connectivity and correspondence between subjective and physiological arousal; the reported association test had P=.003.
- TIME FRAME
- Imaging and laboratory-task measurements, without long-term clinical follow-up.
Editorial & review record
Record for v1.0 · Updated
Editorial responsibility: TAP Editorial Team
Scientific review
Not yet scientifically reviewed
Editorial note
Under the editorial responsibility of the TAP Editorial Team, this publication used AI assistance for content organization and editing. Scientific review is recorded separately on this page.
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How responsibilities and review are recorded ↗Scope of this reading note
Full-text discovery, replication, validation, limitations and disclosures. Supplementary discussion and sensitivity to sample exclusions remain to be examined.
- Study funding
- NIA R01 AG030311; US Army Research Institute W5J9CQ-11-C-0046 and W5J9CQ-12-C-0049; NIMH F32MH096533 and K01MH096175-01; NCI UG1 CA189961 and R25 CA102618; additional Oklahoma Tobacco Research Center and Fonds de recherche santé Québec fellowship support.
- Competing interests
- The authors declare no competing interests and report no funder involvement in study design or the publication decision.
Project support
Founded and supported by Resilio.
Revision history
- · v1.0
Added the network evidence and distinctions between connectivity, regulation and individual measurement validity.