Gray matter volume of the anterior insular cortex and social networking

Abstract

In human life, social context requires the engagement in complex interactions among individuals as the dynamics of social networks. The evolution of the brain as the neurological basis of the mind must be crucial in supporting social networking. Although the relationship between social networking and the amygdala, a small but core region for emotion processing, has been reported, other structures supporting sophisticated social interactions must be involved and need to be identified. In this study, we examined the relationship between morphology of the anterior insular cortex (AIC), a structure involved in basic and high-level cognition, and social networking. Two independent cohorts of individuals (New York group n = 50, Beijing group n = 100) were recruited. Structural magnetic resonance images were acquired and the social network index (SNI), a composite measure summarizing an individual's network diversity, size, and complexity, was measured. The association between morphological features of the AIC, in addition to amygdala, and the SNI was examined. Positive correlations between the measures of the volume as well as sulcal depth of the AIC and the SNI were found in both groups, while a significant positive correlation between the volume of the amygdala and the SNI was only found in the New York group. The converging results from the two groups suggest that the AIC supports network-level social interactions.

Structure and function in human and primate social networks: implications for diffusion, network stability and health

“…In primates as a whole (but not other birds and mammals), social group size is a function of neocortex volume, and especially the more frontal neocortex regions (the Social Brain Hypothesis [39]). In the last decade, neuroimaging studies of both humans [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] and monkeys [51,52] indicate that the relationship between personal social networks (indexed in many different ways) and brain size also applies within species at the level of the individual as well as between species.…”

Multi-Feature Based Network Revealing the Structural Abnormalities in Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Here, the brain regions that were primarily associated with the altered connections were mostly in the aforementioned functional systems. Specifically, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, insula, and precuneus are key regions for socio-emotional processing [73][74][75][76][77][78], and prefrontal cortex is also associated with language processing [79,80] and cognitive control [67,81,82]; the V1 and V4 areas belong to the visual system [83,84]; and PMC is the primary region of the motor system [85]. The high weights of these regions suggest their structures are altered in patients with ASD, which is consistent with ASD symptomatology, including abnormalities in social behavior [86,87], socioemotional processing [61,88], language [89,90], basic motor control [91] and gesture skills [92], visual-motion integration [93], and response to visual stimuli [94][95][96].…”

No strong evidence that social network index is associated with gray matter volume from a data-driven investigation

“…17Indeed, previous studies in humans investigating the relationship between social network metrics 18 and GMV have produced inconsistent results(Table 1). For instance, while some studies showed 19 that bilateral amygdala volume was positively correlated with SNI(Bickart et al, 2011), others 20 failed to replicate these relationships(Spagna et al, 2018). In addition, the different regions of 21 interest hypothesized, and different methods for correcting for multiple comparisons used in past 22 research might also contribute to the discrepant findings(Kanai et al, 2012; Lewis et al, 2011; 1 Noonan et al, 2018).…”