What does the anterior insular cortex do?

The anterior insular cortex (AIC) is believed to be responsible for emotional feelings, including maternal and romantic love, anger, fear, sadness, happiness, sexual arousal, disgust, aversion, unfairness, inequity, indignation, uncertainty, disbelief, social exclusion, trust, empathy, sculptural beauty, a ‘state of …

What is the role of the insula in the brain?

The insula is tucked away inside a prominent fissure of the brain called the lateral sulcus. Depending on whom you ask, the insula is involved in pain, love, emotion, craving, addiction, the enjoyment of music, or even the tasting of wine.

What happens if the insula is damaged?

Damage to the insula can lead to apathy, loss of libido and an inability to tell fresh food from rotten. The bottom line, according to Dr. Paulus and others, is that mind and body are integrated in the insula. It provides unprecedented insight into the anatomy of human emotions.

Where is the anterior insular cortex in the brain?

Location. The insular cortex is located deep within the lateral sulcus of the brain. Also known as the “Island of Reil” based on its initial discovery by Johann Chrstian Reil in 1809, the insula is a region of cortex not visible from the surface view.

What part of the brain is responsible for empathy?

anterior insular cortex
An international team led by researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York has for the first time shown that one area of the brain, called the anterior insular cortex, is the activity center of human empathy, whereas other areas of the brain are not.

What part of the brain controls Interoception?

insula cortex
The region of the brain where interoception is controlled is called the insula cortex.

What hides the insula?

Top left: the insula is folded below the lateral sulcus and is hidden by the opercula (shaded area) of the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes.

What is visceral arousal?

The most obvious signs of emotional arousal involve changes in the activity of the visceral motor (autonomic) system (see Chapter 21). Thus, increases or decreases in heart rate, cutaneous blood flow (blushing or turning pale), piloerection, sweating, and gastrointestinal motility can all accompany various emotions.

Is the insula in the prefrontal cortex?

The anterior insula by itself has a key role in subjective feelings. Furthermore, the anterior insula is connected with sub-regions of the prefrontal cortex, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. The amygdala also by itself has a key role in emotional processing.

What part of the brain controls interoception?

How is the anterior part of the insula subdivided?

The anterior part of the insula is subdivided by shallow sulci into three or four short gyri. The anterior insula receives a direct projection from the basal part of the ventral medial nucleus of the thalamus and a particularly large input from the central nucleus of the amygdala.

How does the anterior insular cortex affect pain processing?

Patients with focal anterior insular cortex lesions displayed decreased discrimination accuracy and prolonged reaction time when processing others’ pain explicitly and lacked a typical interference effect of empathetic pain on the performance of a pain-irrelevant task.

How is dyspnea processed in the anterior insula?

One brain imaging study suggests that the unpleasantness of subjectively perceived dyspnea is processed in the right human anterior insula and amygdala. The cerebral cortex processing vestibular sensations extends into the insula, with small lesions in the anterior insular cortex being able to cause loss of balance and vertigo.

Is the anterior insula connected to the occipital lobe?

A human neuroimaging study using diffusion tensor imaging revealed that the anterior insula is interconnected to regions in the temporal and occipital lobe, opercular and orbitofrontal cortex, triangular and opercular parts of the inferior frontal gyrus.