Frequency-dependent circuits anchored in the dorsal and ventral left anterior insula

The hub role of the right anterior insula (AI) has been emphasized in cognitive neurosciences and been demonstrated to be frequency-dependently organized. However, the functional organization of left AI (LAI) has not been systematically investigated. Here we used 100 unrelated datasets from the Human Connectome Project to study the frequency-dependent organization of LAI along slow 6 to slow 1 bands. The broadband functional connectivity of LAI was similar to previous findings. In slow 6-slow 3 bands, both dorsal and ventral seeds in LAI were correlated to the salience network (SN) and language network (LN) and anti-correlated to the default mode network (DMN). However, these seeds were only correlated to the LAI in slow 2-slow 1 bands. These findings indicate that broadband and narrow band functional connections reflect different functional organizations of the LAI. Furthermore, the dorsal seed had a stronger connection with the LN and anti-correlation with DMN while the ventral seed had a stronger connection within the SN in slow 6-slow 3 bands. In slow 2-slow 1 bands, both seeds had stronger connections with themselves. These observations indicate distinctive functional organizations for the two parts of LAI. Significant frequency effect and frequency by seed interaction were also found, suggesting different frequency characteristics of these two seeds. The functional integration and functional segregation of LDAI and LVAI were further supported by their cognitive associations. The frequency- and seed-dependent functional organizations of LAI may enlighten future clinical and cognitive investigations.