Subjective somatosensory experiences disclosed by focused attention: cortical-hippocampal-insular and amygdala contributions

Abstract

In order to explore the neurobiological foundations of qualitative subjective experiences, the present study was designed to correlate objective third-person brain fMRI measures with subjective first-person identification and scaling of local, subtle, and specific somatosensory sensations, obtained directly after the imaging procedure. Thus, thirty-four volunteers were instructed to focus and sustain their attention to either provoked or spontaneous sensations of each thumb during the fMRI procedure. By means of a Likert scale applied immediately afterwards, the participants recalled and evaluated the intensity of their attention and identified specific somatosensory sensations (e.g. pulsation, vibration, heat). Using the subject's subjective scores as covariates to model both attention intensity and general somatosensory experiences regressors, the whole-brain random effect analyses revealed activations in the frontopolar prefrontal cortex (BA10), primary somatosensory cortex (BA1), premotor cortex (BA 6), precuneus (BA 7), temporopolar cortex (BA 38), inferior parietal lobe (BA 39), hippocampus, insula and amygdala. Furthermore, BA10 showed differential activity, with ventral BA10 correlating exclusively with attention (r(32) = 0.54, p = 0.0013) and dorsal BA10 correlating exclusively with somatosensory sensation (r(32) = 0.46, p = 0.007). All other reported brain areas showed significant positive correlations solely with subjective somatosensory experiences reports. These results provide evidence that the frontopolar prefrontal cortex has dissociable functions depending on specific cognitive demands; i.e. the dorsal portion of the frontopolar prefrontal cortex in conjunction with primary somatosensory cortex, temporopolar cortex, inferior parietal lobe, hippocampus, insula and amygdala are involved in the processing of spontaneous general subjective somatosensory experiences disclosed by focused and sustained attention.

Figure 1. Single run experimental paradigm for either thumb.

Touch-Stimulus (TS, in dark-blue), Stimulation-Aftereffect (SA, in light-blue) and Spontaneous-Sensation (SS, in yellow). Focusing attention (FA, in grey) was required during every condition. No attention task was required during resting periods between conditions (gaps).

Figure 2. Spontaneous-Sensation analysis: Overall activations associated with focusing of attention during the different phases of the experimental paradigm.

A) Focusing attention on Spontaneous-Sensation of the left thumb. B) Focusing of attention on Spontaneous-Sensation of the right thumb. All statistical maps had a significance threshold of Z>2.3, with a cluster significance threshold of p<0.05 (corrected for multiple comparisons). Images are presented in radiological convention and mapped to the MNI-152 template.

Figure 3. Subjective-Sensation analysis: Significant activations and correlations for the covariates from the Phenomenology Questionnaire.

A) Attention as a covariate revealed left ventral frontopolar prefrontal cortex (BA10 in red); Subjective somatosensory experience mean as a covariate revealed (in green) left dorsal frontopolar prefrontal cortex (BA10 in green), right primary somatosensory cortex (BA2), right premotor cortex (BA 6), precuneus (BA 7), left temporopolar cortex (BA 38), right inferior parietal lober (BA 39), right hippocampus, right insula and right amygdala, and. B) Spearman's rank correlations of subjective sensation scores with % BOLD signal change of peak voxels for 1) Subjective Attention score vs. ventral BA10 L, 2) Subjective Somatosensory Experiences vs. ventral BA 10 L, 3) Subjective Attention score vs. dorsal BA10 L, 4) Subjective Somatosensory Experiences vs. dorsal BA 10 L, 5) Subjective Somatosensory Experiences vs. BA 2 R, 6) Subjective Somatosensory Experiences vs. BA 6 L, 7) Subjective Somatosensory Experiences vs.BA 7 R, 8) 6) Subjective Somatosensory Experiences vs. BA 38 L, 9) Subjective Somatosensory Experiences vs. BA 39 R, 10) Subjective Somatosensory Experiences vs. Hippocampus R, 11) Subjective Somatosensory Experiences vs. Insula R, 12) Subjective Somatosensory Experiences vs. Amygdala R. Coordinates shown are X, Y, Z in mm for the MNI152 template. Activations have a significance threshold of Z>2.3, with a cluster significance threshold of p<0.05 (corrected for multiple comparisons) except for *BA10 = small-volume-FDR-correction with p<0.05. All correlations were assessed with the Pearson product-moment correlation and assessed for outliers using Spearman's rank-order correlation. Dashed lines indicate 95% confidence intervals.