Increased Insular Connectivity and Enhanced Empathic Ability Associated with Dance/Music Training

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Arts and Humanities

Background:

• Behavioral studies suggest dancers and musicians possess enhanced sensorimotor abilities and emotional understanding.
• The neural underpinnings of these enhanced abilities, particularly concerning empathy, remain incompletely understood.
• The insula is increasingly recognized for its crucial role in empathic processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural mechanisms of empathy in dancers and musicians by examining insular network connectivity.
• To compare functional connectivity (FC) patterns within the insular network across dancers, musicians, and healthy controls.
• To explore the relationship between dance/music training, insular network alterations, and empathy scores.

Main Methods:

• Resting-state functional connectivity (FC) analysis was employed to map the insular network.
• Whole-brain voxel-based analysis utilized seeds from the posterior insula (PI), ventral anterior insula (vAI), and dorsal anterior insula (dAI).
• One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) evaluated training effects on insular subnetworks, correlating FC patterns with empathy scores.

Main Results:

• Dancers and musicians exhibited increased insular functional connectivity compared to controls.
• Specific increases were observed between PI and anterior cingulated cortex (ACC)/dorsal ACC, vAI and middle temporal gyrus (MTG)/middle cingulated cortex (MCC), and dAI and ACC/MTG.
• Discrepant insular FC patterns were significantly associated with empathy scores in dancers and musicians.

Conclusions:

• Dance and music training appear to enhance insular subnetwork function.
• These neural changes may facilitate the integration of interoceptive and exteroceptive information, leading to heightened affective sensitivity.
• Enhanced insular network connectivity likely contributes to the improved empathic abilities observed in individuals with dance and music training.