Saliency, switching, attention and control: a network model of insula function

By Vinod Menon, Lucina Q. Uddin. Brain Structure and Function, 2010

5,392 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The insula is a brain structure implicated in disparate cognitive, affective, and regulatory functions, including interoceptive awareness, emotional responses, and empathic processes. While classically considered a limbic region, recent evidence from network analysis suggests a critical role for the insula, particularly the anterior division, in high-level cognitive control and attentional processes. The crucial insight and view we present here is of the anterior insula as an integral hub in mediating dynamic interactions between other large-scale brain networks involved in externally oriented attention and internally oriented or self-related cognition. The model we present postulates that the insula is sensitive to salient events, and that its core function is to mark such events for additional processing and initiate appropriate control signals. The anterior insula and the anterior cingulate cortex form a “salience network” that functions to segregate the most relevant among internal and extrapersonal stimuli in order to guide behavior. Within the framework of our network model, the disparate functions ascribed to the insula can be conceptualized by a few basic mechanisms: (1) bottom–up detection of salient events, (2) switching between other large-scale networks to facilitate access to attention and working memory resources when a salient event is detected, (3) interaction of the anterior and posterior insula to modulate autonomic reactivity to salient stimuli, and (4) strong functional coupling with the anterior cingulate cortex that facilitates rapid access to the motor system. In this manner, with the insula as its integral hub, the salience network assists target brain regions in the generation of appropriate behavioral responses to salient stimuli. We suggest that this framework provides a parsimonious account of insula function in neurotypical adults, and may provide novel insights into the neural basis of disorders of affective and social cognition.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7fd8bee2d3a38b29ae2228466d3431a34c7ae240

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Citations in the corpus

Changes in structural and functional connectivity among resting-state networks across the human lifespan (2014, background): “, 2007), and maintains strong functional connections to both cognitive control systems and the motor cortex (Menon and Udding, 2010).”
The Salience Network: A Neural System for Perceiving and Responding to Homeostatic Demands (2019, background): “…part, to engage the task-control network so it can (1) maintain the most relevant task set for as long as the salient stimulus complex remains or (2) orchestrate switching to a new task set (and relevant network configuration) in response to shifts in the salience landscape (Menon and Uddin, 2010).”
Large-Scale Brain Networks in Cognition: Emerging Principles (2010, background): “We have proposed that this framework provides a parsimonious account of insula function in neurotypical adults and may provide novel insights into the neural basis of disorders of affective and social cognition (Menon and Uddin, 2010).”
Default network activity, coupled with the frontoparietal control network, supports goal-directed cognition (2010, positive): “, 2008) and the anterior insula in salience processing and shifting between the default and dorsal attention networks (Menon and Uddin, 2010).”
Salience network integrity predicts default mode network function after traumatic brain injury (2012, background): “The SN is thought to be important for signaling the need to change behavior (27).”
The shifting sands of creative thinking: Connections to dual-process theory (2014, background): “Neurobiological mechanisms of shifting between thinking processes Moving to a neurobiological level of explanation, one potential candidate for a shifting mechanism is the “salience network” proposed by Menon and Uddin (2010).”
Anterior Insular Cortex and Emotional Awareness (2013, neutral): “…the insular cortex is roughly divided into an anterior agranular portion (anterior insula, AIC), a middle dysgranular portion (middle insula), and a posterior granular portion (posterior insula) in both humans (Flynn et al., 1999; Butti and Hof, 2010; Bauernfeind et al., 2013;…”
A multisensory investigation of the functional significance of the "pain matrix" (2011, positive): “…this finding agrees well with the results of a number of recent studies, suggesting a central role of the anterior insula in human perception (independently of sensory modality), cognition, and attention (e.g., Brass and Haggard, 2010; Menon and Uddin, 2010; Sterzer and Kleinschmidt, 2010).”
Decoding the role of the insula in human cognition: functional parcellation and large-scale reverse inference. (2013, background): “…on M ay 23, 2016 http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/ D ow nloaded from amygdala, and VTA to form a ‘‘salience detection’’ network (Seeley et al. 2007) and appears to be integrally involved in switching between the executive control and default networks (Sridharan et al. 2008; Menon and Uddin 2010).”
Salience Network–Based Classification and Prediction of Symptom Severity in Children With Autism (2013, positive): “We have proposed that the salience network may serve a general purpose to detect salient endogenous or exogenous events and initiate and mobilize resources for appropriate behavioral responses.(49) Dysfunction of this network could in principle lead to some of the core features of ASD, including red”
The salience network is responsible for switching between the default mode network and the central executive network: Replication from DCM (2014, background): “…access to attention and workingmemory upon detection of a salient event, interaction of the anterior and posterior insula for autonomic reactivity to salient stimuli and strong functional coupling with the anterior cingulate to facilitate rapid access to the motor system (Menon and Uddin, 2010).”
Functional connectivity of the insula in the resting brain (2011, neutral): “Uddin and Menon (2009) hypothesized that the right AI could “act as a ‘causal outflow hub’ coordinating two large-scale networks important for mediating attention to the external (executive-control) and internal (defaultmode) worlds” (Menon and Uddin, 2010).”
Deriving reproducible biomarkers from multi‐site resting‐state data: An Autism‐based example (2016, background): “temporo-parietal junction (Saxe and Kanwisher, 2003)), and cognitive control (anterior insula and right inferior parietal cortex (Menon and Uddin, 2010)), commonly affected in ASD (Anderson et al.”
A meta-analysis of neurofunctional imaging studies of emotion and cognition in major depression (2012, neutral): “This is of special importance, since the central positions of both AI and ACC regions significantly contribute to the engagement of task-relevant and disengagement of task-irrelevant brain regions for effective information processing (Menon and Uddin, 2010; Pizzagalli, 2011).”
Intrinsic architecture underlying the relations among the default, dorsal attention, and frontoparietal control networks of the human brain (2012, positive): “…internally-and externally-oriented, goal-directed cognition (Smallwood, Brown, Baird, & Schooler, 2012; Spreng et al., 2010; Spreng, 2012), and maintaining the dynamic balance between default and dorsal attention networks (Doucet et al., 2011; Gao & Lin, 2012; see also Menon & Uddin, 2010).”