Follow Aura and Find the Sixth Sense Publisher



Saghazadeh A^{1, 2} ; Rezaei N^{3, 4, 5} Show Affiliations
Source: Biophysics and Neurophysiology of the Sixth Sense Published:2019

Abstract

How to sense aura is an interesting question science needs to answer. There is limited scientific knowledge about variables formulating this question; aura and the sixth sense. Auras precede different clinical states such as migraines, seizures, and the sixth sense, also known as interoception, which is defined as the subjective sense of internal physiological states of the entire body. At this moment, the best possible way that seems to satisfy this old insatiable curiosity is to ponder over the neuroanatomy of aura and the sixth sense. The visual aura has been associated with cortical spreading depression within the visual cortex. Migraines with aura cause a decrease in the functional connectivity between the salience network (SN) and central executive network (CEN). Almost half of the patients with temporal lobe epilepsy experience aura prior to the development of seizure. This type of epilepsy has been demonstrated to decrease the functional connectivity between the default mode network (DMN) and SN. Altogether, aura might influence the whole way of functional connectivity within the brain. On the other side, interoceptive tasks have been shown to involve the somatomotor, cingulate cortices, and particularly insula. The sixth sense seems to require the intact functional connectivity within and between all three major brain networks (DMN, SN, and CEN). Because that hyperconnectivity of the SN has been observed among low-resilience individuals and its hypoconnectivity has been observed among patients with depressive disorder and schizophrenia. All of these disorders have been associated with lower performance in interoceptive tasks. In summary, aura and the sixth sense face each other within the brain. However, none of them can be seen when the brain is in the stable state. They seem to be contralateral asymmetric states of the brain so that they reach each other while attempting to get the brain into the stable state. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019.