Editing Insular cortex (section)

=== Emotions ===
The insular cortex, in particular its most anterior portion, is considered a [[limbic]]-related cortex. The insula has increasingly become the focus of attention for its role in body representation and subjective emotional experience. In particular, [[Antonio Damasio]] has proposed that this region plays a role in mapping visceral states that are associated with emotional experience, giving rise to conscious feelings. This is in essence a neurobiological formulation of the ideas of [[William James]], who first proposed that subjective emotional experience (i.e., feelings) arise from our brain's interpretation of bodily states that are elicited by emotional events. This is an example of [[embodied cognition]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}

In terms of function, the insula is believed to process convergent information to produce an ''emotionally relevant context for sensory experience''. To be specific, the anterior insula is related more to ''olfactory, gustatory, viscero-autonomic, and limbic function'', whereas the posterior insula is related more to ''auditory-somesthetic-skeletomotor'' function. [[fMRI|Functional imaging experiments]] have revealed that the insula has an important role in [[pain]] experience and the experience of a number of basic [[emotions]], including [[anger]], [[fear]], [[disgust]], [[happiness]], and [[sadness]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wager|first=Tor|title=Functional Neuroanatomy of Emotion: A Meta-Analysis of Emotion Activation Studies in PET and fMRI|doi=10.1006/nimg.2002.1087|pmid=12030820|volume=16|issue=2|date=June 2002|journal=NeuroImage|pages=331–48|s2cid=7150871}}</ref>

The anterior insular cortex (AIC) is believed to be correlated to emotional sensations, including maternal and romantic love, anger, fear, sadness, happiness, sexual arousal, disgust, aversion, unfairness, inequity, indignation, uncertainty,<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Vilares I, Howard JD, Fernandes HL, Gottfried JA, Kording KP |title=Differential Representations of Prior and Likelihood Uncertainty in the Human Brain |journal=Current Biology |volume=22 |issue=18 |pages=1641–1648 |date=2012 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2012.07.010 |pmid=22840519 |pmc=3461114 |bibcode=2012CBio...22.1641V }}</ref>{{Dubious|date=February 2025}} disbelief, [[social exclusion]], trust, empathy, sculptural beauty, a ‘state of union with God’, and hallucinogenic states.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Craig |first=A. D. (Bud) |year=2009 |title=How do you feel — now? The anterior insula and human awareness |journal=Nature Reviews Neuroscience |volume=10 |pages=59–70 |url=http://www.allmanlab.caltech.edu/biCNS217/PDFs/Craig2009.pdf |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20130107223506/http://www.allmanlab.caltech.edu/biCNS217/PDFs/Craig2009.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-01-07 |doi=10.1038/nrn2555 |issue=1 |pmid=19096369 |s2cid=2340032 }}</ref>

Functional imaging studies have also implicated the insula in conscious desires, such as food craving and drug craving. What is common to all of these emotional states is that they each change the body in some way and are associated with highly salient subjective qualities. The insula is well-situated for the integration of information relating to bodily states into higher-order cognitive and emotional processes. The insula receives information from "homeostatic afferent" sensory pathways via the thalamus and sends output to a number of other limbic-related structures, such as the [[amygdala]], the [[ventral striatum]], and the [[orbitofrontal cortex]], as well as to [[Motor cortex|motor cortices]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Craig |first=A. D. (Bud) |year=2002 |title=A new view of pain as a homeostatic emotion |journal=Trends in Neurosciences |volume=26 |issue=6 |pages=303–307 |url=http://meagherlab.tamu.edu/M-Meagher/%20Health%20Psyc%20630/Readings%20630/Pain%20mech%20read/Craig%2003%20pain%20emotion.pdf |doi=10.1016/s0166-2236(03)00123-1 |pmid=12798599 |s2cid=19794544 |access-date=2009-09-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100622001631/http://meagherlab.tamu.edu/M-Meagher/%20Health%20Psyc%20630/Readings%20630/Pain%20mech%20read/Craig%2003%20pain%20emotion.pdf |archive-date=2010-06-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

A study using [[magnetic resonance imaging]] found that the right anterior insula is significantly thicker in people that [[meditate]].<ref name="pmid16272874">{{cite journal |vauthors=Lazar SW, Kerr CE, Wasserman RH, Gray JR, Greve DN, Treadway MT, McGarvey M, Quinn BT, Dusek JA, Benson H, Rauch SL, Moore CI, Fischl B |title=Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness |journal=NeuroReport |volume=16 |issue=17 |pages=1893–7 |year=2005 |pmid=16272874 |pmc=1361002 |doi=10.1097/01.wnr.0000186598.66243.19}}</ref> Other research into [[brain activity and meditation]] has shown an increase in grey matter in areas of the brain including the insular cortex.<ref name="Fox 48–73">{{cite journal|last=Fox|first=Kieran C.R.|author2=Nijeboer, Savannah |author3=Dixon, Matthew L. |author4=Floman, James L. |author5=Ellamil, Melissa |author6=Rumak, Samuel P. |author7=Sedlmeier, Peter |author8= Christoff, Kalina |title=Is meditation associated with altered brain structure? A systematic review and meta-analysis of morphometric neuroimaging in meditation practitioners|journal=Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews|date=June 2014|volume=43|pages=48–73|doi=10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.03.016 |pmid=24705269|s2cid=207090878}}</ref>

Another study using voxel-based morphometry and MRI on experienced [[Vipassana meditation|Vipassana meditators]] was done to extend the findings of Lazar et al., which found increased grey matter concentrations in this and other areas of the brain in experienced meditators.<ref>{{Cite journal | url= | doi=10.1093/scan/nsm038| pmid=19015095| title=Investigation of mindfulness meditation practitioners with voxel-based morphometry| journal=Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience| volume=3| issue=1| pages=55–61| year=2008| last1=Hölzel| first1=Britta K.| last2=Ott| first2=Ulrich| last3=Gard| first3=Tim| last4=Hempel| first4=Hannes| last5=Weygandt| first5=Martin| last6=Morgen| first6=Katrin| last7=Vaitl| first7=Dieter| pmc=2569815}}</ref>

The strongest evidence against a causative role for the insula cortex in emotion comes from Damasio et al. (2012) <ref>{{Cite journal | doi=10.1093/cercor/bhs077| pmid=22473895| title=Persistence of Feelings and Sentience after Bilateral Damage of the Insula| journal=Cerebral Cortex| volume=23| issue=4| pages=833–846| year=2013| last1=Damasio| first1=A.| last2=Damasio| first2=H.| last3=Tranel| first3=D.| pmc=3657385}}</ref> which showed that a patient who suffered bilateral lesions of the insula cortex expressed the full complement of human emotions, and was fully capable of emotional learning.