Human Anterior Insula Encodes Performance Feedback and Relays Prediction Error to the Medial Prefrontal Cortex
Pablo Billeke1, Tomas Ossandon2,3, Marcela Perrone-Bertolotti4,5
1Laboratorio de Neurociencia Social y Neuromodulación, Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social (neuroCICS), Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago CL 7610658, Chile.
Abstract:
Adaptive behavior requires the comparison of outcome predictions with actual outcomes (e.g., performance feedback). This process of performance monitoring is computed by a distributed brain network comprising the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the anterior insular cortex (AIC). Despite being consistently co-activated during different tasks, the precise neuronal computations of each region and their interactions remain elusive. In order to assess the neural mechanism by which the AIC processes performance feedback, we recorded AIC electrophysiological activity in humans. We found that the AIC beta oscillations amplitude is modulated by the probability of performance feedback valence (positive or negative) given the context (task and condition difficulty). Furthermore, the valence of feedback was encoded by delta waves phase-modulating the power of beta oscillations. Finally, connectivity and causal analysis showed that beta oscillations relay feedback information signals to the mPFC. These results reveal that structured oscillatory activity in the anterior insula encodes performance feedback information, thus coordinating brain circuits related to reward-based learning.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
Diencephalon: Anatomical Regions
Diencephalon: Thalamus and Information Relay
Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex....
Diencephalon: Hypothalamus and Coordination
The hypothalamus interacts with other brain regions, including the pituitary gland, through a direct physical connection called the hypothalamic-pituitary axis. The hypothalamus receives somatic and visceral inputs and...
Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex


