1
|
Franco-O'Byrne D, Santamaría-García H, Migeot J, Ibáñez A. Emerging Theories of Allostatic-Interoceptive Overload in Neurodegeneration. Curr Top Behav Neurosci 2024. [PMID: 38637414 DOI: 10.1007/7854_2024_471] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/20/2024]
Abstract
Recent integrative multilevel models offer novel insights into the etiology and course of neurodegenerative conditions. The predictive coding of allostatic-interoception theory posits that the brain adapts to environmental demands by modulating internal bodily signals through the allostatic-interoceptive system. Specifically, a domain-general allostatic-interoceptive network exerts adaptive physiological control by fine-tuning initial top-down predictions and bottom-up peripheral signaling. In this context, adequate adaptation implies the minimization of prediction errors thereby optimizing energy expenditure. Abnormalities in top-down interoceptive predictions or peripheral signaling can trigger allostatic overload states, ultimately leading to dysregulated interoceptive and bodily systems (endocrine, immunological, circulatory, etc.). In this context, environmental stress, social determinants of health, and harmful exposomes (i.e., the cumulative life-course exposition to different environmental stressors) may interact with physiological and genetic factors, dysregulating allostatic interoception and precipitating neurodegenerative processes. We review the allostatic-interoceptive overload framework across different neurodegenerative diseases, particularly in the behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). We describe how concepts of allostasis and interoception could be integrated with principles of predictive coding to explain how the brain optimizes adaptive responses, while maintaining physiological stability through feedback loops with multiple organismic systems. Then, we introduce the model of allostatic-interoceptive overload of bvFTD and discuss its implications for the understanding of pathophysiological and neurocognitive abnormalities in multiple neurodegenerative conditions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Franco-O'Byrne
- Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile
- Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience (CSCN), School of Psychology, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile
| | - Hernando Santamaría-García
- Global Brain Health Institute, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Department of Psychiatry, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia
- Center of Memory and Cognition Intellectus, Hospital Universitario San Ignacio, Bogotá, Colombia
| | - Joaquín Migeot
- Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile
- Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience (CSCN), School of Psychology, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile
| | - Agustín Ibáñez
- Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile.
- Global Brain Health Institute, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
- Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN), Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Ibanez A, Kringelbach ML, Deco G. A synergetic turn in cognitive neuroscience of brain diseases. Trends Cogn Sci 2024; 28:319-338. [PMID: 38246816 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.12.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2023] [Revised: 12/15/2023] [Accepted: 12/27/2023] [Indexed: 01/23/2024]
Abstract
Despite significant improvements in our understanding of brain diseases, many barriers remain. Cognitive neuroscience faces four major challenges: complex structure-function associations; disease phenotype heterogeneity; the lack of transdiagnostic models; and oversimplified cognitive approaches restricted to the laboratory. Here, we propose a synergetics framework that can help to perform the necessary dimensionality reduction of complex interactions between the brain, body, and environment. The key solutions include low-dimensional spatiotemporal hierarchies for brain-structure associations, whole-brain modeling to handle phenotype diversity, model integration of shared transdiagnostic pathophysiological pathways, and naturalistic frameworks balancing experimental control and ecological validity. Creating whole-brain models with reduced manifolds combined with ecological measures can improve our understanding of brain disease and help identify novel interventions. Synergetics provides an integrated framework for future progress in clinical and cognitive neuroscience, pushing the boundaries of brain health and disease toward more mature, naturalistic approaches.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Agustin Ibanez
- Latin American Institute for Brain Health (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibanez, Santiago, Chile; Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), University California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA, USA; Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | - Morten L Kringelbach
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Gustavo Deco
- Center for Brain and Cognition, Computational Neuroscience Group, Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Roc Boronat 138, Barcelona 08018, Spain; Institució Catalana de la Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Passeig Lluís Companys 23, Barcelona 08010, Spain.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Ibanez A, Northoff G. Intrinsic timescales and predictive allostatic interoception in brain health and disease. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 157:105510. [PMID: 38104789 PMCID: PMC11184903 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105510] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2023] [Revised: 11/29/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
The cognitive neuroscience of brain diseases faces challenges in understanding the complex relationship between brain structure and function, the heterogeneity of brain phenotypes, and the lack of dimensional and transnosological explanations. This perspective offers a framework combining the predictive coding theory of allostatic interoceptive overload (PAIO) and the intrinsic neural timescales (INT) theory to provide a more dynamic understanding of brain health in psychiatry and neurology. PAIO integrates allostasis and interoception to assess the interaction between internal patterns and environmental stressors, while INT shows that different brain regions operate on different intrinsic timescales. The allostatic overload can be understood as a failure of INT, which involves a breakdown of proper temporal integration and segregation. This can lead to dimensional disbalances between exteroceptive/interoceptive inputs across brain and whole-body levels (cardiometabolic, cardiovascular, inflammatory, immune). This approach offers new insights, presenting novel perspectives on brain spatiotemporal hierarchies and interactions. By integrating these theories, the paper opens innovative paths for studying brain health dynamics, which can inform future research in brain health and disease.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Agustin Ibanez
- Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), University of California San Francisco (UCSF), CA, USA; Latin American Brain Health (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile; Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
| | - Georg Northoff
- Mental Health Center, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China; Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China; Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics, Institute of Mental Health Research, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Neural compensation in manifest neurodegeneration: systems neuroscience evidence from social cognition in frontotemporal dementia. J Neurol 2023; 270:538-547. [PMID: 36163388 DOI: 10.1007/s00415-022-11393-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2022] [Revised: 09/13/2022] [Accepted: 09/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND It has been argued that symptom onset in neurodegeneration reflects the overload of compensatory mechanisms. The present study aimed to investigate whether neural functional compensation can be observed in the manifest neurodegenerative disease stage, by focusing on a core deficit in frontotemporal dementia, i.e. social cognition, and by combining psychophysical assessment, structural MRI and functional MRI with multidimensional neural markers that allow quantification of neural computations. METHODS Nineteen patients with clinically manifest behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and 20 controls performed facial expression recognition tasks in the MRI-scanner and offline. Group differences in grey matter volume, neural response amplitude and neural patterns were assessed via a combination of voxel-wise whole-brain, searchlight, and ROI-analyses and these measures were correlated with psychophysical measures of emotion, valence and arousal ratings. RESULTS Significant group effects were observed only outside task-relevant regions, converging in the caudate nucleus. This area showed a diagnostic neural pattern as well as hyperactivation and stronger neural representation of facial expressions in the bvFTD sample. Furthermore, response amplitude was associated with behavioral arousal ratings. CONCLUSIONS The combined findings reveal converging support for compensatory processes in clinically manifest neurodegeneration, complementing accounts that clinical onset synchronizes with the breakdown of compensatory processes. Furthermore, active compensation may proceed along nodes in intrinsically connected networks, rather than along the more task-specific networks. The findings underscore the potential of distributed multidimensional functional neural characteristics that may provide a novel class of biomarkers with both diagnostic and therapeutic implications, including biomarkers for clinical trials.
Collapse
|
5
|
Gündem D, Potočnik J, De Winter FL, El Kaddouri A, Stam D, Peeters R, Emsell L, Sunaert S, Van Oudenhove L, Vandenbulcke M, Feldman Barrett L, Van den Stock J. The neurobiological basis of affect is consistent with psychological construction theory and shares a common neural basis across emotional categories. Commun Biol 2022; 5:1354. [PMID: 36494449 PMCID: PMC9734184 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-04324-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2021] [Accepted: 11/30/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Affective experience colours everyday perception and cognition, yet its fundamental and neurobiological basis is poorly understood. The current debate essentially centers around the communalities and specificities across individuals, events, and emotional categories like anger, sadness, and happiness. Using fMRI during the experience of these emotions, we critically compare the two dominant conflicting theories on human affect. Basic emotion theory posits emotions as discrete universal entities generated by dedicated emotion category-specific neural circuits, while psychological construction theory claims emotional events as unique, idiosyncratic, and constructed by psychological primitives like core affect and conceptualization, which underlie each emotional event and operate in a predictive framework. Based on the findings of 8 a priori-defined model-specific prediction tests on the neural response amplitudes and patterns, we conclude that the neurobiological basis of affect is primarily characterized by idiosyncratic mechanisms and a common neural basis shared across emotion categories, consistent with psychological construction theory. The findings provide further insight into the organizational principles of the neural basis of affect and brain function in general. Future studies in clinical populations with affective symptoms may reveal the corresponding underlying neural changes from a psychological construction perspective.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Doğa Gündem
- grid.5596.f0000 0001 0668 7884Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jure Potočnik
- grid.5596.f0000 0001 0668 7884Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - François-Laurent De Winter
- grid.5596.f0000 0001 0668 7884Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium ,grid.5596.f0000 0001 0668 7884Geriatric Psychiatry, University Psychiatric Center KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Amal El Kaddouri
- grid.5596.f0000 0001 0668 7884Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Daphne Stam
- grid.5596.f0000 0001 0668 7884Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Ronald Peeters
- grid.410569.f0000 0004 0626 3338Department of Radiology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Louise Emsell
- grid.5596.f0000 0001 0668 7884Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium ,grid.410569.f0000 0004 0626 3338Department of Radiology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium ,grid.5596.f0000 0001 0668 7884Department of Imaging and Pathology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Stefan Sunaert
- grid.410569.f0000 0004 0626 3338Department of Radiology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium ,grid.5596.f0000 0001 0668 7884Department of Imaging and Pathology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Lukas Van Oudenhove
- grid.5596.f0000 0001 0668 7884Laboratory for Brain-Gut Axis Studies (LaBGAS), Translational Research in Gastrointestinal Disorders (TARGID), Department of Chronic Diseases and Metabolism, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium ,grid.254880.30000 0001 2179 2404Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH USA
| | - Mathieu Vandenbulcke
- grid.5596.f0000 0001 0668 7884Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium ,grid.5596.f0000 0001 0668 7884Geriatric Psychiatry, University Psychiatric Center KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Lisa Feldman Barrett
- grid.261112.70000 0001 2173 3359Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA USA ,grid.38142.3c000000041936754XDepartment of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA ,grid.32224.350000 0004 0386 9924Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA USA
| | - Jan Van den Stock
- grid.5596.f0000 0001 0668 7884Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium ,grid.5596.f0000 0001 0668 7884Geriatric Psychiatry, University Psychiatric Center KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Migeot JA, Duran-Aniotz CA, Signorelli CM, Piguet O, Ibáñez A. A predictive coding framework of allostatic-interoceptive overload in frontotemporal dementia. Trends Neurosci 2022; 45:838-853. [PMID: 36057473 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2022.08.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2022] [Revised: 06/27/2022] [Accepted: 08/09/2022] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
Abstract
Recent allostatic-interoceptive explanations using predictive coding models propose that efficient regulation of the body's internal milieu is necessary to correctly anticipate environmental needs. We review this framework applied to understanding behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) considering both allostatic overload and interoceptive deficits. First, we show how this framework could explain divergent deficits in bvFTD (cognitive impairments, behavioral maladjustment, brain atrophy, fronto-insular-temporal network atypicality, aberrant interoceptive electrophysiological activity, and autonomic disbalance). We develop a set of theory-driven predictions based on levels of allostatic interoception associated with bvFTD phenomenology and related physiopathological mechanisms. This approach may help further understand the disparate behavioral and physiopathological dysregulations of bvFTD, suggesting targeted interventions and strengthening clinical models of neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Joaquin A Migeot
- Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile; Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience (CSCN), School of Psychology, Universidad Adolfo Ibanez, Santiago, Chile
| | - Claudia A Duran-Aniotz
- Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile; Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience (CSCN), School of Psychology, Universidad Adolfo Ibanez, Santiago, Chile
| | - Camilo M Signorelli
- Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Physiology of Cognition, GIGA-CRC In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium; Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, INSERM, Saclay, France
| | - Olivier Piguet
- The University of Sydney, School of Psychology and Brain & Mind Centre, Sydney, Australia
| | - Agustín Ibáñez
- Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile; Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina; National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Global Brain Health Institute, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA, and Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Pavlova MA, Sokolov AA. Reading Covered Faces. Cereb Cortex 2021; 32:249-265. [PMID: 34521105 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2021] [Revised: 08/06/2021] [Accepted: 08/06/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Covering faces with masks, due to mandatory pandemic safety regulations, we can no longer rely on the habitual daily-life information. This may be thought-provoking for healthy people, but particularly challenging for individuals with neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions. Au fait research on reading covered faces reveals that: 1) wearing masks hampers facial affect recognition, though it leaves reliable inferring basic emotional expressions; 2) by buffering facial affect, masks lead to narrowing of emotional spectrum and dampen veridical evaluation of counterparts; 3) masks may affect perceived face attractiveness; 4) covered (either by masks or other veils) faces have a certain signal function introducing perceptual biases and prejudices; 5) reading covered faces is gender- and age-specific, being more challenging for males and more variable even in healthy aging; 6) the hampering effects of masks on social cognition occur over the globe; and 7) reading covered faces is likely to be supported by the large-scale assemblies of the neural circuits far beyond the social brain. Challenges and limitations of ongoing research and parallels to the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test are assessed. Clarification of how masks affect face reading in the real world, where we deal with dynamic faces and have entrée to additional valuable social signals such as body language, as well as the specificity of neural networks underlying reading covered faces calls for further tailored research.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Marina A Pavlova
- Social Neuroscience Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, and Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), Tübingen 72076, Germany
| | - Arseny A Sokolov
- Service de neuropsychologie et de neuroréhabilitation, Département des neurosciences cliniques, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), Lausanne 1011, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Marshall CR, Warren JD. Reply: Brain-behaviour associations and neural representations of emotions in frontotemporal dementia. Brain 2020; 143:e18. [PMID: 32003779 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awaa006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Charles R Marshall
- Preventive Neurology Unit, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Charterhouse Square, London, UK.,Dementia Research Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, UK
| | - Jason D Warren
- Dementia Research Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, UK
| |
Collapse
|