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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: Psychol Bull. 2014 Nov 3;141(2):311–363. doi: 10.1037/a0038101

Figure 2.

Figure 2

A simplified illustration of the major connections and many feedback loops involved in interoception in humans and other primates; adapted with permission from Craig (2003a), with additional connections added based on the work of others (e.g., Mufson et al., 1981; Ray & Price, 1993). Red lines indicate pathways that are phylogenetically novel in primates. Larger grey arrows indicate the general flow of bodily information from the vagus and brain stem upward to the right anterior insula—the theoretical nexus of consciously accessible feelings of the body and “self” (see Craig, 2003a). A1 = brainstem area 1; ACC = anterior cingulate cortex; ANS = autonomic nervous system; MD = medial dorsal nucleus of the thalamus; NTS = nucleus of the solitary tract; OFC = orbitofrontal cortex; PAG = periaqueductal gray; PB = parabrachial nucleus; mPFC = medial prefrontal cortex; RVLM = rostral ventrolateral medulla; VMb = basal ventral medial nucleus of the thalamus; VMpo = posterior ventral medial nucleus of the thalamus; VMM = ventral medial medulla.