Insular cortex

By ShuangShuang Hu and Kyu Hwang

What is it?

is located between the temporal lobe and parietal lobe

is connected to the experience of emotions, the processing of tastes, the memory of procedures, the control of motor responses and interpersonal behaviour.

negative emotions activate in this region.

The insular cortex comprises two main sections: the anterior and posterior regions

AIC = the anterior insular cortex

PIC= the posterior insular cortexTasks:

Such as:-motor tasks-amygdale activation-social emotions-language-interceptive awareness

*perform a primary role in the processing and memory of emotional reactions.

Tasks:Such as:-time and decision making-is related more to auditory function

Functions: Risky decision making Anxiety and neuroticism Interoceptive awareness Motor control Homeostasis Self Social emotions Emotions Salience

Study 1:Antonio Damasio’s “Choosing between the indistinguishable”

study(2005)

Aim: To determine, whether a person can have the preference for one taste over another without being able to distinguish between the two.

Participants: Patient B, suffered from damage to the insular-cortex and a controlled patient (without damage to the insular-cortex)

Procedure: Asked them to taste 38 drinks in succession (each drink was

either a mixture of salt and water – “disgusting”, or sugar and water – “nice”), presented in random orders.

Results:Patient B Controlled patient

Declared each one to be ‘delicious’ and to taste ‘like pop’ (fizzy drink)

Immediately stopped drinking all of the salt water after the first sip, finding them extremely unpleasant.

Continuing… Procedure:

• Presented two drinks at a time: the salt drink and the sugar drink side by side.

• Patient B was asked to sip each and then to drink the one he preferred.

• On 19th trials, he chose the sugar drink.

Findings:• “The taste comparison likely provides patient B with an

overt feeling that he would rather drink one solution than another, without any over knowledge of the taste experiences that would normally provide justification for this preference”

Study 2: Nicolas Danziger & colleagues“The empathic powers of those who can’t feel pain”

study(2009)

Aim: To see if patients with the inability to feel pain in real life can feel it vicariously

Participants:• 13 patients with the inability to feel pain• 13 healthy controls

Procedure:• Participants had their brains scanned while they viewed videos

of body parts being injured and people’s painful facial expressions.

Results:• Even though the patients had never felt pain themselves, the

sight of other people’s pain triggered activity in the insular of their brains.

Findings:• Activity in insular cortex may reflect processing of the aversive

emotional significance of what the patients were witnessing.• Insular cortex is associated with psychological pain, induced by

social exclusion or grief.

Study 3: Romantic Rejection Stimulates Areas of Brain Involved in Motivation, Reward and

Addiction(2010)

conducted by Fisher & Brown & others

Aim: - to see if the pain of rejection by a romantic partner is related

to brain activity associated with motivation, reward and addiction craving.

Procedure: - researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging

(fMRI) to record brain activity in 15 college-age, men and women who

had recently been rejected by their partners but reported that they were still in love.

- participants were asked to take the Passionate Love Scale test. All participants scored high on the test. They said they spent more than 85% of their waking hours thinking of the person who rejected them.

- participants viewed a photograph of their former partners. Then they completed a simple math exercise to distract them from their thoughts. Finally, they viewed a photograph of a familiar "neutral" person.

Results:While looking at the pictures of their former

partners:

It stimulated several key areas of the participants’ brains more than looking at photos of neutral people.

The areas :- the ventral tegmental area - the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex - the insular cortex and the anterior cingulate

Findings:

romantic rejection is a specific form of addiction why the beloved is so difficult to give up why feelings related to romantic rejection can be

hard to control a insight into extreme behaviors associated with

rejection the pain of rejection by a romantic partner may be

the result of activity in parts of the brain associated with motivation, reward and addiction cravings

Dysfunctions: Mood disorders Panic disorders PTSD Obsessive-compulsive disorders Eating disorders Schizophrenia

THANK YOU