Аннотация:
The insular lobe (insula) acts as a center for processing visceral information and interoception, playing a crucial role in emotional experience and subjective sensations. Interoceptive signals cause sensations that are perceived as pleasant or unpleasant, creating a person’s motivation to approach or distance. The insula can play a significant role in the emotional aspects of making hasty, «intuitive», risky decisions and in the cycle of addiction. Thus, at the beginning of the use of psychoactive substances, repulsive, protective body signals are gradually «reprogrammed» into positive and attractive because of their association with substances rewarding effects. Craving can be experienced as a homeostatic feeling of need, the body’s need (like a somatic feeling of hunger or thirst) for a drug. Mental images associated with addiction may include various visceral and vegetative sensations and the body’s reactions. The «somatic marker» hypothesis (A. Damasio) states that emotions influence the decision-making process through internal sensations and physiological changes associated with triggers. Violations and distortions of interoceptive sensitivity, awareness and accuracy may reflect both the ease of initialization of addictive behavior and the difficulty of countering such behavior. It is necessary to study the role of the insular lobe in the cycle of addiction and craving, as well as the development of assistance and rehabilitation programs that help to develop interoceptive awareness and attention.
Ключевые слова:
insula, interoception, drug addiction, alcohol addiction, addictive behavior, mental images, craving.