Human feelings: why are some more aware than others?
A recent article reports that human perception of heartbeat timing is mediated by right (non-dominant) anterior insular cortex, and that the activity and the size of this region is directly correlated with individuals' subjective awareness of inner body feelings and emotionality. These results support the somatic-marker hypothesis of consciousness (a modern successor to the James-Lange theory of emotion) and the neuroanatomical concept that human awareness is based on a phylogenetically distinct interoceptive pathway.
Craig
A D Bud
AD
Atkinson Research Laboratory, Barrow Neurological Institute, 350 West Thomas Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85013, USA. bcraig@chw.edu <bcraig@chw.edu>
D000818:Animals; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer