DMI challenge in chronic DMI-treated neuropathic rats produced significantly greater activation of the deep mesencephalic nucleus, primary somatosensory cortex, insular cortex, medial globus pallidus, inferior colliculus, perirhinal cortex and cerebellum compared to sham-operated rats and saline controls. 
In CAH women and control women AND activated the anterior hypothalamus, and EST the amygdala, piriform, and anterior insular cortex.
The present study investigated the organization of dynamic mechanical allodynia processing in the rat insular cortex after chronic constriction injury to the infraorbital nerve (IoN-CCI). Light, moving stroking of the infraorbital skin resulted in strong, bilateral upregulation of extracellular-signal regulated kinase phosphorylation (pERK-1/2) in the insular cortex of IoN-CCI animals but not sham rats, in whose levels were similar to those of unstimulated IoN-CCI rats. Stimulus-evoked pERK-1/2 immunopositive cell bodies displayed rostrocaudal gradient and layer selective distribution in the insula, being predominant in the rostral insula and in layers II-III of the dysgranular and to a lesser extent, of the agranular insular cortex. In layers II-III of the rostral dysgranular insular cortex, intense pERK also extended into distal dendrites, up to layer I. These results demonstrate that trigeminal nerve injury induces a significant alteration in the insular cortex processing of tactile stimuli and suggest that ERK phosphorylation contributes to the mechanisms underlying abnormal pain perception under this condition..
A pattern of alpha activity as estimated by sLORETA was shown in the right amygdala, uncus, hippocampus, BA37, insular cortex and orbitofrontal regions during the SPESA condition.
GLU administration in the stomach also activates several brain areas (insular cortex, basal ganglia, limbic system, and hypothalamus).
Von Economo neurons (VENs) are large spindle-shaped neurons localized to anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and fronto-insular cortex (FI).
[ 1] demonstrated that in different stages PD pathology involves the nigrostriatal system, the amygdala, and the insular cortex.
CONCLUSION: Considering our results and the findings of previous studies, spatial neglect appears to be associated with a network of regions involving the TPJ, inferior IPL, posterior STG, the insular cortex, and posterior-frontal projections.
The insular cortex is a paralimbic area of the brain thought to have important roles in sensory integration, auditory hallucinations and language. In the current study, we conducted a stereological examination of neuronal and glial size and density in layers 2 and 3 of the dorso-caudal region of the insular cortex in 15 schizophrenic, 15 bipolar, 15 unipolar and 15 control patients. This study thus provides the first evidence of cytoarchitectural abnormality of the insular cortex in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia but not mood disorders.
Initial imaging studies suggested an important role of the insular cortex for the perception of both unpleasant sensations. OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the influence of lesions of the insular cortex on the perception of dyspnea and pain. METHODS: In four patients with right-hemispheric insular cortex lesions, as assessed with computer tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, and four matched healthy controls, dyspnea was induced by resistive loaded breathing. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that lesions of the right insular cortex are associated with reduced sensitivity for the perception of dyspnea and pain, in particular for their perceived unpleasantness. This underlines the importance of the insular cortex for the perception of both sensations..
Significantly enhanced activation for men compared with women was revealed in brain areas involved in erotic processing, i.e., the thalamus, the amygdala, and the orbitofrontal and insular cortex, whereas no specific activation for women was found.
In both experiments Ginkgo increased Fos-IR in numerous brain regions including the insular cortex and amygdala.
RESULTS: The main centers affected in the NERD-H patients included the secondary somatosensory cortex (SII), primary somatosensory cortex (S1), right prefrontal cortex (PFC), right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), insular cortex, amygdala, striatum, motor cortex and its supplementary area, and cerebellum cortices, which form part of the matrix controlling emotional, autonomic modulatory responses to pain.
Quantitative autoradiography revealed that binding of [ (3)H] CP-55,940 (CB1 receptor ligand) was elevated following three weeks of HF feeding in areas including the medial/ventral anterior olfactory nucleus (22.1%), agranular insular cortex (24.0%) and the hypothalamus (31.5%) compared to LF controls.
Type D tumors originate from the temporal mediobasal region and invade into the adjacent structures of the temporal stem, insular cortex, claustrum, putamen, or pallidum.
We observed significant activation of the CEN and deactivation of the DMN, along with activation of a third network comprising the right fronto-insular cortex (rFIC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), when participants perceived salient auditory event boundaries.
Anisomycin, a protein synthesis inhibitor, was infused into the hippocampus, perirhinal cortex, insular cortex, or basolateral amygdala of rats immediately after the sample phase of object or object-in-context recognition memory training. Anisomycin infused into the hippocampus blocked long-term, but not short-term object-in-context recognition memory, whereas infusions administered into the perirhinal cortex, insular cortex, or amygdala did not affect object-in-context recognition memory.
However, in the insular cortex, EA at ST36 showed stronger attenuation.
Discussion: Our results suggest that insular cortex epilepsy may mimic temporal, frontal, and parietal lobe epilepsies and that a nonnegligeable proportion of surgical candidates with drug-resistant epilepsy have an epileptogenic zone that involves the insula..
The insular cortex serves an integrative function for all the structures relevant to the features of AN and as such may be central to this impairment.
NMDA receptors (NMDARs) activation in the hippocampus and insular cortex is necessary for spatial memory formation. Our results show that water maze training induces a rapid recruitment of NMDAR subunits (NR1, NR2A, NR2B) and PSD-95 to synaptic lipid rafts and decrease in the post-synaptic density plus an increase of NR2B phosphorylation at tyrosine 1472 in the rat insular cortex.
The culprit infarcts included or were close to the insular cortex in six patients and were located extensively in the vertebrobasilar arterial territory in the other patient.
The formalin stimulation at the hind paw of rats resulted in significant metabolic increases in the bilateral cingulate cortex, motor cortex, primary somatosensory cortex, secondary somatosensory cortex, insular cortex, visual cortex, caudate putamen, hippocampus, periaqueductal gray, amygdala, thalamus, and hypothalamus.
OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the feasibility, safety, and usefulness of depth electrodes stereotactically implanted within the insular cortex. Among these, one or two electrodes were implanted via an oblique approach to widely sample the insular cortex. A total of 226 recording contacts (mean, 7.5 contacts/patient) explored the insular cortex.
It is concluded that the occurrence of ictal vomiting reflects a propagation of the discharge to the insular cortex.
Our previous studies on the insular cortex (IC), a region of the temporal cortex implicated in the acquisition and storage of conditioned taste aversion (CTA), have demonstrated that intracortical microinfusion of BDNF induces a lasting potentiation of synaptic efficacy in the projection from the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (Bla) to the IC of adult rats in vivo. In this work, we present experimental data showing that acute intracortical delivery of BDNF (2 microg/2 microl per side) reverses the deficit in CTA memory caused by inhibition of insular cortex protein synthesis due to anisomycin administration (100 microg/microl per side) in male adult Wistar rats.
Moreover, direct post-training infusions of corticosterone into the insular cortex or basolateral complex of the amygdala, two brain regions that are critically involved in the acquisition and consolidation of CTA, also enhanced CTA retention, whereas post-training infusions into the dorsal hippocampus were ineffective.
Painful stimuli produced patterns of activation similar to what has been reported for other noxious stimuli, namely activation in the primary and secondary somatosensory cortices, anterior cingulate cortex, insular cortex, and thalamus.
DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Study of the normal and pathologic insular cortex suggest several implications of the region in somatosensory and language functions. However, the insular cortex has been mainly associated with central pain. The left insular cortex has also been implicated in speech apraxia but our patient presented with fluent aphasia mostly affecting the rhythm of speech, as it has been observed in thalamic aphasia..
P311 is also expressed in other areas associated with pain affection including the amygdala, insular cortex and thalamus.
RESULTS: fMRI analysis showed that the lower part of the insular cortex was activated first, and its signal alteration preceded the clinical beginning of the seizure (i.e.
In contrast, binding potential reductions of lesser magnitude were observed in regions known to be involved in the placebo response (anterior cingulate and anterior insular cortex).
In addition to their involvement in various other cognitive and emotional processes, the anterior cingulate and insular cortex are thought to contribute to the so-called "pain neuromatrix". During anticipation of and exposure to sham mobile phone radiation increased activations in anterior cingulate and insular cortex as well as fusiform gyrus were seen in the electrosensitive group compared to controls, while heat stimulation led to similar activations in both groups. Symptom manifestation during sham exposure to mobile phone radiation was accompanied by specific alterations of cortical activity in anterior cingulate and insular cortex in subjectively electrosensitive patients further supporting the involvement of these areas in the perception of unpleasantness and generation of functional somatic syndromes..
RESULTS: Patients had reduced gray matter density relative to control subjects in a distributed network of regions, including bilateral insular cortex, anterior cingulate, left parahippocampal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, postcentral gyrus, and thalamus.
Minor Fos responses to morphine were also found in layers IV and VI of the somatosensory cortex and layer VI of the insular cortex of the drug-naïve rats; these responses were significantly enhanced both by morphine and methadone pretreatment.
The main changes with FS occurred in the hippocampus, a region involved in memory, the insular cortex, a region involved with interoception (perception of internal sensations), the medial thalamus (region involved in alertness) and in regions involved with sensory perception (olfactory bulb, olfactory nucleus, occipital cortex, superior colliculus and parietal cortex), which corroborates their relevance in the perception of food..
Novel taste presentation induces in the insular cortex biochemical modifications that decrease after the taste becomes familiar. These results suggest that modulation of NMDA receptors in the insular cortex through the increase of its NR2A and NR2B subunits in the DRM is involved in the taste memory formation via a cholinergic process..
The group analysis of all subjects revealed that tactile stimulation activated contralateral somatosensory cortices (S1 [ primary] and S2 [ secondary]), but the imagination of allodynia led to an additional activation of anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral activation of S2, insular cortex, and prefrontal cortices. Subgroup analysis using rating-weighted predictors revealed activation of the contralateral thalamus, anterior cingulate cortex, and amygdala and a bilateral activation of S1, S2, and insular cortex and prefrontal cortices in allodynia-experienced subjects.
Diffusion-weighted imaging revealed hyper-intense lesions in the middle cerebral artery territory, particularly in the insular cortex.
NK1 receptor binding in the agranular insular cortex and arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus and NK2 receptor binding in the amygdala was lower in preshocked rats than in controls.
Compared with other areas of the forebrain, the function of insular cortex is poorly understood.
In contrast, microglia was not activated in supraspinal regions of the CNS, including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), prefrontal cortex (PFC), primary and secondary somatosensory cortex (S1 and S2), insular cortex (IC), amygdala, hippocampus, periaqueductal gray (PAG) and rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM).
Seizures arising from the temporal lobe always invade the insular region, but in approximately 10% of cases, the seizures originate in the insular cortex itself. The literature contains no reports of cases of resection of insular cortex alone; most insular resections are performed in the context of temporal resection, when there is some evidence of seizures originating in the insula itself. In this context, less invasive procedures, such as SEEG-guided radiofrequency thermolesions of the insular cortex, are under investigation..
A mean number of labeled neurons in auditory (AuV), granular and agranular (GI, AIP) areas of the insular cortex was calculated to reach 12.3 +/- 0.7, 18.5 +/- 1.0 and 23.3 +/- 1.7 units per section, respectively (P < 0.05). A large number of structural associations between labeled cells and vessels in the temporal and insular cortex indicate that NADPH-d-reactive interneurons can contribute to regulation of the cerebral regional blood flow in these areas..
The spino-thalamic tract consists of two systems; the lateral system terminates in the somato-sensory cortex, and participates in the sensory discrimination of pain, and the medial system terminates in the anterior cingulated cortex (ACC) and insular cortex (IC) to mediate affective components of pain.
Binding potential ratio and H(1)ROs were calculated using placebo data and were compared between bepotastine and diphenhydramine in the anterior and posterior cingulate gyri (ACG and PCG, respectively), superior and inferior frontal cortices (SFC and IFC, respectively), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), insular cortex (IC), lateral and medial temporal cortices (LTC and MTC, respectively), parietal cortex (PC), occipital cortex (OC) and sensorimotor cortex (SMC).
The results, which show that the attenuation, but not initial occurrence, of gustatory neophobia is dependent upon NMDA receptors in the BLA, are discussed with reference to a similar finding involving NMDA receptors in the insular cortex..
A previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of an A-beta deafferented subject (GL) showed that stimulation of tactile C afferents (CT) activates insular cortex whereas no activation was seen in somatosensory cortices. The results in IW showed similar activation of posterior insular cortex following CT stimulation as in GL and so strengthen the view that CT afferents underpin emotional aspects of touch.
Linguistic impairments emerged later, and were contingent on atrophy having spread into areas widely believed to subserve core language processes (left posterior perisylvian, inferior frontal and insular cortex).
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and insular cortex are implicated in distributed neural circuitry that supports emotional decision-making. Patients with focal, stable lesions to the vmPFC (n = 20) and the insular cortex (n = 13) were compared against healthy subjects (n = 41) and a group of lesion controls (n = 12) with damage predominantly affecting the dorsal and lateral frontal cortex. The vmPFC and insular cortex patients showed selective and distinctive disruptions of betting behaviour. In contrast, patients with insular cortex lesions failed to adjust their bets by the odds of winning, consistent with a role of the insular cortex in signalling the probability of aversive outcomes. Poor decision-making in clinical populations can arise via multiple routes, with functionally dissociable effects of vmPFC and insular cortex damage..
Different lines of evidence have suggested an involvement of the insular cortex in pain processing. Direct electrical stimulation (ES) of the human insular cortex during surgical procedure sometimes induces painful sensations and painful stimuli induce activation of the insular cortex as shown by functional neuroimaging. Invasive evaluation of epileptic patients by deep brain stereotactically implanted electrodes provides an opportunity to analyze responses induced by ES of the insular cortex in awake and fully conscious patients. For this study, we included 25 patients suffering from drug refractory focal epilepsy with at least one electrode stereotactically implanted in the insular cortex using an oblique approach (transfrontal or transparietal).
The insular cortex is one such structure. Analysis of the scan revealed metabolic hypoactivity within the left insular cortex as an incidental finding.
Microstimulation of the anterior insular cortex produced responses which manifested themselves in a decrease of inspiratory flow and tidal volume, but the respiratory time remained stable.
The columnar organization is most apparent in the whisker barrel cortex but seems less apparent in the gustatory insular cortex. In contrast to the well known excitation spread in the horizontal direction in layer II/III induced in the barrel cortex by layer IV stimulation, the excitation caused in the insular cortex by stimulation of layer IV spread bidirectionally in the vertical direction into layers II/III and V/VI, displaying a columnar image pattern. Bicuculline or picrotoxin markedly extended the horizontal excitation spread in layer II/III in the barrel cortex, leading to a generation of excitation in the underlying layer V/VI, whereas those markedly increased the amplitude of optical responses throughout the whole column in the insular cortex, subsequently widening the columnar image pattern. Thus, a unique functional column existed in the insular cortex, in which intracolumnar communication between the superficial and deep layers was prominent, and GABA(A) action is involved in the inhibition of the intracolumnar communication in contrast to its involvement in intercolumnar lateral inhibition in the barrel cortex.
Results: Valence ratings correlated positively with neural activity in the left insular cortex and inversely with neural activity in the right dorsolateral prefrontal and precuneus cortices.
The insular cortex has been often targeted and presented as the central hub of the vestibular cortical system. We evaluated the spatial layout and the temporal dynamics of the activated cortical and subcortical regions in time-locking with the instant of injection and were able to extract a robust pattern of neural activity involving the contra-lateral insular cortex, the thalamus, the brainstem and the cerebellum. The temporal analysis of the activation profiles highlighted a significantly longer duration of the evoked BOLD activity in the brainstem compared to the insular cortex suggesting a functional de-coupling between cortical and subcortical activity during the vestibular response..
The results showed a significant recruitment of the right insular cortex, and bilaterally in the cingulate in response to the trigeminal component.
We observed mild cerebral and cerebellar atrophy and infarct at bilateral posterior putamen and insular cortex localization on conventional images and elevated choline/creatine ratios and abnormal peak at 3.8 ppm, most likely representing arginine deposition.
In independent samples, RGS2 markers, including rs4606, which has previously been associated with RGS2 expression, were also associated with introversion (a core personality trait in social anxiety disorder) and with increased limbic activation (insular cortex and amygdala) during emotion processing (brain phenotypes correlated with social anxiety). The genotype at rs4606 explained 10% to 15% of the variance in amygdala and insular cortex activation to emotional faces.
Higher activity following noxious stimulation was found in the contralateral mid-anterior insular cortex, in the anterior mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC) and in the adjacent dorso-medial frontal cortex.
In the unmapped cases, the MGB PDLs ranged from 0.6% (ventral division) after insular cortex injections to 6.7% (dorsal division) after temporal cortex injections.
A significant increase in cytochrome oxidase activity was found in anterior cortical areas (medial, dorsal and lateral frontal cortex; agranular insular cortex; lateral and medial orbital cortex and prelimbic cortex) in both conditioned groups, as compared with the untrained control group.
The brain was microcephalic with normal gyration, having a hypoplastic corpus callosum, thinned insular cortex, and enlarged lateral ventricles.
Here, it is argued that the interoceptive system, which provides information about the subject's internal state and is integrated in the insular cortex, and not the subcortical ventral striatum, is the critical neural substrate for reward-related processes.
To address this issue, a low dose of the beta-adrenergic antagonist propranolol was infused before learning in either the basolateral amygdala (BLA) or the insular cortex (IC), two forebrain areas reported to play a key role in taste memory formation.
The SELF versus OTHERS contrast significantly increased the activation of the right prefrontal cortex, bilateral insular cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and bilateral occipital cortex.
Successful inhibition of speech (naming of letters or pseudowords) engaged a region of right IFC (including pars opercularis and anterior insular cortex) as well as presupplementary motor area (pre-SMA); these regions were also activated by successful inhibition of a hand response (i.e., a button press).
Formalin injections were found to increase BOLD signals in the cingulate cortex, sensory-motor cortices, insular cortex, striatum, nucleus accumbens, medial thalamus, ventrolateral thalamic group, and hippocampus.
Our results show that repetitive scratching induces robust bilateral activation of the secondary somatosensory cortex, insular cortex, prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal lobe, and cerebellum.
Rats injected with CTb in the insular cortex and stimulated with hypertonic saline had increased numbers of Fos/CTb double-positive neurons in the paraventricular, rhomboid, and reuniens thalamic nuclei, whereas those rats injected with CTb in the cingulate cortex and challenged with hypertonic saline had increased numbers of Fos/CTb double-positive neurons in the medial part of the mediodorsal, interanteromedial, anteromedial, and ventrolateral part of the laterodorsal thalamic nuclei. Rats injected with CTb in the dorsal midline of the thalamus and challenged with hypertonic saline had increased numbers of Fos/CTb double-positive neurons within the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT), median preoptic nucleus, and insular cortex but not the subfornical organ.
The latter then project to insular cortex via spinothalamic tracts. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies showed that a slowly moving tactile stimulus along hairy skin produced a strong activation of the insular cortex.
The cingulate cortex (CC) as a part of the "medial" pain subsystem is generally assumed to be involved in the affective and/or cognitive dimensions of pain processing, which are viewed as relatively slow processes compared with the sensory-discriminative pain coding by the lateral second somatosensory area (SII)-insular cortex.
RESULTS: A long prodromal phase was associated with smaller grey matter volumes in the cingulate, frontal and left insular cortex, and with less white matter volume bilaterally in the superior longitudinal and uncinate fasciculi and the cingulum.
Human studies in healthy individuals showed lateralization of cardiovascular autonomic function exists in the forebrain, particularly the insular cortex. Particularly insular cortex involvement is associated with more pronounced autonomic imbalance leading to life threatening arrhythmias and sudden death.
Considering the available evidence in laboratory animals and primates of a role played by the agranular insular cortex in gastroenteric motility control, the trademark presence of a very much extended insular agranular cortex in the Insula of the bull may be related to the necessity of motor activity control of a gastroenteric complex that is extensively more developed than in the monogastric species..
RESULTS: The blood supply from the MCA to the basal ganglia area was largest (probability, 0.6 approximately 0.8), followed by the insular cortex (probability, 0.3 approximately 0.5), and various cerebral cortical areas (probability, 0.2 approximately 0.4). The MCA reached to deep structures of the brain, including the internal capsule, caudate nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus, insular cortex, and thalamus with a high-extent probability.
DNETs have also been reported in the insular cortex, brain stem, cerebellum, occipital lobe and striatum.
Neuroimaging showed the most extensive grey matter loss in the hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus and frontal operculum/insular cortex of the right hemisphere and, to a lesser extent, in the anterior cingulate gyrus, head of the caudate nucleus and the posterolateral orbitofrontal cortex and insular cortex bilaterally.
One day later, these GRE SVS and HVS signs disappeared and a new infarct lesion in the right insular cortex was found on magnetic resonance images (MRI).
RATIONALE: The amygdala and insular cortex are integral to the processing of emotionally salient stimuli.
Our findings support clinical and experimental evidence concerning the involvement of the perirhinal and insular cortex networks in temporal lobe epilepsy, and provide observations that may impact research focussing on the role of the insular cortex in nociception..
In brain regions associated with the processing of the sensory intensity of pain (primary and secondary somatosensory cortices, posterior insular cortex), activation decreased linearly in relation to alfentanil concentrations, which was significantly less pronounced in OPRM1 118G carriers.
The aBP changes reached statistical significance vs healthy controls (p < 0.05, U test with Bonferroni-Holm adjustment for multiple comparisons) in cingulate cortex (-50.0%), precentral gyrus (-40.9%), postcentral gyrus (-38.6%), insular cortex (-38.6%), thalamus (-32.9%), parietal cortex (-31.7%), frontal cortex (-28.6), lateral temporal cortex (-28.2%), orbitofrontal cortex (-27.9%), occipital cortex (-24.6), putamen (-22.7%) and mesial temporal lobe (-22.4%).
Neurones residing from the level of the heart to the insular cortex form temporally dependent reflexes that control overlapping, spatially determined cardiac indices.
Urinary bladder filling led to an increased rCBF in the periaqueductal grey (PAG), the posterior thalamus, the insular cortex as well as in the right frontal cortex and the cerebellum bilaterally. A significant interaction between bladder condition and STN-DBS was observed in the posterior thalamus and the insular cortex, with enhanced modulation of these areas during STN-DBS ON compared to STN-DBS OFF. Furthermore, regression analyses revealed a modulation of the neural activity in the thalamus and the insular cortex by the PAG activity during STN-DBS ON only.
The present study tested the hypothesis that lesions of the insular cortex of the rat retard the acquisition of conditioned taste aversions (CTAs) because of an impairment in the detection of the novelty of taste stimuli. However, rats with insular cortex lesions acquired taste aversions at the same slow rate regardless of whether the saccharin was novel or familiar. The pattern of behavioural deficits obtained cannot be interpreted as disruptions of taste detection or stimulus intensity, but is consistent with the view that insular cortex lesions disrupt taste neophobia, a dysfunction that consequently retards CTA acquisition because of a latent inhibition-like effect..
Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in a subject with a neuronopathy who specifically lacks A-beta afferents indicated that tactile C afferents (CT) activate insular cortex, whereas no response was seen in somatosensory areas 1 and 2.
We conclude that the insular cortex is a key structure in the perception of bodily needs that provides direction to motivated behaviors..
Patients failed to activate the amygdala, piriform and the anterior insular cortex in the epileptogenic hemisphere. Congruent with the activation data each seed region was in patients functionally disconnected with the contralateral amygdala+piriform+insular cortex.
The degree to which individuals adjusted switching rate, or win-stay/lose-shift consistent responses, as a function of errors was correlated with the difference in insular cortex activation differences between high and low error rates.
Pathology, age at surgery, age at seizure onset, duration of epilepsy, type of surgery, surgeon, possible incomplete disconnection on MR images, and presence of residual insular cortex were analyzed as potential associated variables during the follow-up period. The Cox regression analysis showed presence of insular cortex to be the only variable statistically associated with postoperative seizures (p = 0.021) in this group of 28 patients. CONCLUSIONS: In this group of Dutch pediatric and adolescent patients, residual insular cortex was positively correlated with persistent postoperative seizures. Given the small sample size in this study, however, caution should be used in drawing conclusions about the role of the insular cortex..
The rostral agranular insular cortex (RAIC) receives dopaminergic projections from the mesolimbic system, which has been involved in the modulation of nociceptive processes.
These regions were located in areas typically affected by AD pathology (right inferior frontal, superior temporal and insular cortex, and hippocampus).
RESULTS: The lesions were located in the frontal lobe (n=10), in the insular cortex (n=3) and in the parietal lobe (n=1).
After exclusion of the auditory effects, the major findings were as follows: (i) significant activations were located in the multisensory cortical vestibular network within both hemispheres, including the posterior insular cortex, the middle and superior temporal gyri, and the inferior parietal cortex.
Vascular damage to this area could be followed by cardiac arrhythmias related to a disinhibition of the right insular cortex with resulting increased sympathetic tone.
Structural and functional abnormalities of the insular cortex have been reported in patients with schizophrenia. As the insular cortex is functio-anatomically divided into anterior and posterior subdivisons, recent research is focused on uncovering a specific subdivisional abnormality of the insula in patients with schizophrenia.
The role of the insular cortex (IC) in learning to associate orosensory cues with the oral and post-oral properties of carbohydrate was examined.
The anterior cingulate cortex, the insular cortex, and the amygdala are examples of regions implicated in both pain and memory.
We report a case of SOD-plus with mild cortical dysplasia which was revealed to be thickening of bilateral insular cortex without schizencephaly by MRI, and there was no sign or symptom of cortical dysfunction except for one episode of brief seizure..
This rich trove of taste cells has functional characteristics typical of both the insular cortex that projects to it and the clOFC to which it projects.
We investigated whether changes in oral temperature activate these areas in humans, or middle or posterior insular cortex, the areas most frequently identified for the encoding of temperature information from the human hand.
Rhythmic jaw movements were induced by repetitive electrical stimulation of the two cortical masticatory areas (area A: the orofacial motor cortex; area P: the insular cortex).
Diffusion-weighted and T2-weighted MR images showed an acute infarction in the right insular cortex caused by vasospasm.
Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging showed bilaterally symmetrical signal abnormalities of the insular cortex and cingulate gyrus.
Although a similar forebrain network was activated in both groups, the smaller cardiovascular response in women was reflected in a weaker insular cortex activation.
Furthermore, activations in the right and left posterior insular cortex and in the left superior frontal gyrus showed an opposite pattern, namely a stronger BOLD signal during "non-rating". (3) In contrast to most other cortical regions, the posterior insular cortex, which is crucial for the integration of interoceptive afferent input, shows stronger responses in the absence of ratings, which points to a unique role of this region in the processing of somato-visceral information..
RESULTS: We observed decreased binding specifically in the insular cortex bilaterally.
MRI diffusion-weighted image on day one revealed high intensity area at the right insular cortex and MRA showed stenosis of the right middle cerebral artery.
Some projections terminate throughout the entorhinal cortex (afferents from medial area 13 and posterior parahippocampal cortex), while others have more limited termination, with emphasis either rostrally (lateral orbitofrontal cortex, agranular insular cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, perirhinal cortex, unimodal visual association cortex), intermediate (upper bank of the superior temporal sulcus, unimodal auditory association cortex) or caudally (parietal and retrosplenial cortices).
Compared with controls, imaginary movement of the affected hand in patients showed reduced activation ipsilaterally in the premotor and adjacent prefrontal cortex, and in a cluster comprising frontal operculum, the anterior part of the insular cortex and the superior temporal gyrus.
Grey matter volume in bilateral anterior insular cortex and the left amygdala was significantly reduced in CD patients compared to healthy control subjects.
Regions within the CCN include anterior cingulate cortex/pre-supplementary motor area (ACC/pSMA), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), inferior frontal junction (IFJ), anterior insular cortex (AIC), dorsal pre-motor cortex (dPMC), and posterior parietal cortex (PPC).
Here we show that the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) plays differential roles in acquisition, extinction and reconsolidation of conditioned taste aversion (CTA) memory in the rat insular cortex, which contains the taste cortex. Activation of the CB1 receptor in the insular cortex inhibits acquisition and reconsolidation but not extinction, whereas blockade of the CB1 receptor promotes memory and blocks extinction of CTA, while having no apparent effect on reconsolidation. All in all, the data raise the possibility that the state of activity of the CB1 receptor in the insular cortex contributes to the encoding of hedonic valence that enters into association with taste items..
We observed PDE2 and PDE9 mRNA in all cortical areas studied (insular cortex, entorhinal cortex and visual cortex), although to a different extent.
Moreover, only the odor presentation elicited a significantly higher Fos immunoreactivity in the piriform cortex, the entorhinal cortex and the insular cortex.
In MSA-C, VBM revealed gray matter loss in cerebellum, right thalamus, both putamina and several cortical regions including insular cortex. Gray matter loss in the cerebellum and insular cortex was correlated with disease duration and severity. VBR analysis in MSA-C showed decreased relaxation rate R2 in cerebellum, pontine brainstem and cortical regions including insular cortex. In MSA-P, gray matter was reduced in cerebellum, dorsal midbrain, both putamina, and several cortical regions including insular cortex.
Furthermore, voxelwise analysis revealed increased activation related to phobia-specific pictures bilaterally in the anterior cingulate cortex, the left insular cortex and bilaterally in the supplementary motor area.
The evidence suggests that movement is initiated in the frontal lobe, particularly the mesial areas, and the sense of volition arises as the result of a corollary discharge likely involving multiple areas with reciprocal connections including those in the parietal lobe and insular cortex..
Comparison of the periods preceding thermal stimulation (anticipation to pain-anticipation to warm) revealed activity principally in the ACC, the contralateral anterior insular cortex and the ipsilateral S2/posterior insula.
Stimulus-evoked activity for memory and control trials was generally indistinguishable within the network of regions normally responsive to experimental pain [ i.e., the primary somatosensory cortex/posterior parietal cortex (SI/PPC), secondary somatosensory cortex (SII), and anterior insular cortex (aIC)]; these data confirm the painful nature of the stimuli and the similar levels of attention and stimulus encoding engaged during the two randomly presented trial types.
First, VA sent a projection to a well-confined region in the caudal end of the insular cortex (Ins) pivotal for fear memory formation during aversive conditioning.
Soft brush stroking on the calf (n=6) was less pleasant (p<0.04) and evoked less activation of posterior insular cortex in the sumatriptan compared to the saline condition. Another possibility is inhibition of a recently discovered system of low-threshold unmyelinated tactile (CT) afferents that are present in hairy skin only, project to posterior insular cortex, and serve affective aspects of tactile sensation. This latter alternative is consistent with the observed reduction in posterior insular cortex activation and the selective effects of stimulation on hairy compared to glabrous skin, which are not explained by the nociceptor sensitization account..
Other prevalent areas of activation included the anterior cingulate cortex and insular cortex.
Patients showed increased activations of the known pain-processing areas (thalamus, basal ganglia, operculo-insular cortex), but also of some prefrontal, temporal and parietal regions during first pain exposure and of temporal and parietal areas during cognitive stress, but reduced activations during emotional stress.
CONCLUSIONS: Drug abusers present significant alterations in extensive areas of the cortex (especially in the frontal and temporal cortex), subcortex (amygdala, hippocampus and insular cortex) and basal regions (striatum).
The insular cortex is located in the centre of the cerebral hemisphere, having connections with the primary and secondary somatosensory areas, anterior cingulate cortex, amygdaloid body, prefrontal cortex, superior temporal gyrus, temporal pole, orbitofrontal cortex, frontal and parietal opercula, primary and association auditory cortices, visual association cortex, olfactory bulb, hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and motor cortex. Accordingly, dense connections exist among insular cortex neurons. The insular cortex is involved in the processing of visceral sensory, visceral motor, vestibular, attention, pain, emotion, verbal, motor information, inputs related to music and eating, in addition to gustatory, olfactory, visual, auditory, and tactile data. In this article, the literature on the relationship between the insular cortex and neuropsychiatric disorders was summarized following a computer search of the Pub-Med database. Recent neuroimaging data, including voxel based morphometry, PET and fMRI, revealed that the insular cortex was involved in various neuropsychiatric diseases such as mood disorders, panic disorders, PTSD, obsessive-compulsive disorders, eating disorders, and schizophrenia. Investigations of functions and connections of the insular cortex suggest that sensory information including gustatory, olfactory, visual, auditory, and tactile inputs converge on the insular cortex, and that these multimodal sensory information may be integrated there..
The insular cortex (IC), a region of the brain involved in blood pressure (BP) modulation, shows decreases in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) during postexercise hypotension (PEH).
Prior to testing each rat received either a control or quinolinic acid induced lesion of the agranular insular cortex. In contrast, rats with agranular insular cortex lesions failed to show anticipatory discriminability. The data suggest that the agranular insular cortex may be involved in the anticipation of reward..
In contrast, activity in frontal and parietal areas (inferior part of the right precentral sulcus, ipsilateral supramarginal gyrus, bilateral inferior parietal lobule, bilateral putamen, and insular cortex) correlated with activation per se, independently of the amount of EMG.
Dual target stimulation decreased anterior cingulate and insular cortex perfusion.
To study the role of PKC activity in aversive or safe taste memory formation, we administered chelerythrine, a PKC inhibitor, into the insular cortex or parietal cortex 20 min before conditioned taste aversion or attenuation of neophobia training. The results suggest that PKC activity is needed in the insular cortex for the establishment of aversive taste memory, but not for safe taste memory..
When noxious cold and innocuous cold were compared, noxious cold contributed significantly more to activations of the posterior insula and innocuous cold contributed more to activations of ipsilateral anterior insular cortex.
RESULTS: Significantly increased ADC values were demonstrated in normal-appearing areas in the insular cortex (P<0.001), thalamus (P<0.001), and the parietal and frontal white matter (P<0.001 and P<0.001, respectively) in NPSLE patients.
RESULTS: The following neural structures have been shown to be prominent in emotional function: right and left hemisphere, corpus callosum, anterior commissure, anterior cingulate, prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and insular cortex.
All participants were able to successfully regulate BOLD-magnitude in the right anterior insular cortex within three sessions of 4 min each.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results provide evidence for differential brain responses to action-related sounds after short periods of learning in the human insular cortex. As the hand sensorimotor area of the insular cortex appears to be involved in these responses, re-activation of movement representations stored in the insular sensorimotor cortex may have contributed to the observed effect. The insular cortex may therefore play a role in the initial learning phase of action-perception associations..
It is already known that cold water vestibular caloric irrigation of the ear leads to activation of a number of areas in the contralateral hemisphere - including the insular cortex.
Further significant activations were identified bilaterally in the frontal opercula, the right insular cortex and the right supramarginal gyrus.
The imaging data showed activation in the insular cortex, thalamus, parietal cortices and cerebellum during the exercise period.
Taste information is also sent to the reward system and feeding center via several brain sites including the prefrontal cortex, insular cortex, and amygdala.
RESULTS: Detection of HHV-6 viral DNA sequence and RNA expression were demonstrated in fresh frozen post-mortem autopsy material derived from the insular cortex using a multi-virus array platform.
This phenomenon was present in all cortical regions symmetrical to the impact zone, but also in auditory, visual, entorhinal and insular cortex.
Five clusters of sources emerged: a single source cluster in caudal cingulate and bilateral sources in secondary somatosensory cortex (SII), inferior parietal cortex, premotor cortex and insular cortex.
Lesions on DWI were found mainly in the corona radiata (n = 18), middle cerebral artery territory, including the motor cortex and/or insular cortex (n = 13), striatocaudate nuclei (n = 11), primary motor cortex (n = 10), internal capsule (n = 7), pons (n = 25), pontobulbar junction (n = 5) and the thalamomesencephalic junction (n = 4).
Here we report that the neuronal responses in insular cortex, an area connected to anterior cingulate cortex, can also be nicely fitted.
Higher regional metabolism was found in ABA rats in the mediodorsal thalamus, ventral pontine nuclei and cerebellum, while hypometabolism was seen in the left rhinal and bilateral insular cortex, and bilateral ventral striatum (p<0.001).
mGluR3 expression was increased in the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala, and mGluR2 expression was increased in the agranular insular cortex of preshocked rats compared to controls.
DIPS was related to lesions involving the parietal operculum and the insular cortex, whereas DICS was related to the lesions affecting the postcentral gyrus.
When individuals selected the delayed relative to the immediate reward, a strong activation was found in bilateral posterior insular cortex.
New findings indicate significant lithium-induced c-Fos in the gustatory region of the thalamus and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis but not in the insular cortex.
Finally, in Experiment 3, lesions of the insular cortex retarded CTA acquisition but had no influence on COA acquisition.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: insular cortex ischemia is proposed to mediate a sympathetic stimulus that leads to acute hyperglycemia after stroke. CONCLUSIONS: insular cortex hypoperfusion <6 hours after stroke onset was not associated with hyperglycemia..
A large decrease in the number of PV-immunopositive neuron profiles occurred in the pEn, adjoining parts of the DEN and deep layer III of the PC, portions of the DEN bordering the claustrum and agranular insular cortex, and layer III of the caudal PC.
RESULTS: The voxel-based morphometry exhibited smaller than normal regional brain volumes in the insular cortex and neighboring white matter, as well as in the hippocampus in the victims. INTERPRETATION: Sarin intoxication might be associated with structural changes in specific regions of the human brain, including those surrounding the insular cortex, which might be related to elevated subjective awareness of internal bodily status in exposed individuals..
Consistent with previous reports, error-related activity in the rostral cingulate zone (RCZ), the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) and the insular cortex bilaterally was found. Whereas the RCZ activity did not differentiate between aware and unaware errors, activity in the left anterior inferior insular cortex was stronger for aware as compared to unaware errors.
METHODS: The muscarinic M2 (presynaptic) and M4 (postsynaptic) receptors in the striatum, pallidum and adjacent insular cortex were autoradiographically measured in pathologically confirmed cases of PSP (n = 18), and compared with cases of Lewy body dementias (LBDs; n = 45), Alzheimer's disease (AD; n = 39) and controls (n = 50). Groups with LBD and AD showed higher M2 binding in the insular cortex compared with controls.
Male Wistar rats were implanted with bipolar electrodes aimed at the right amygdala (AMG) or at the right insular cortex (IC).
In addition, another particular subpopulation of NOS positive neurons with no or little CCK immunoreactivity appeared to project to areas covering the dorsal endopiriform nucleus, claustrum and insular cortex.
Frightening stimuli led to increased activity in the ventral medial prefrontal, anterior cingulate, pulvinar, and insular cortex.
The rostral agranular insular cortex (RAIC) of rats has opioid receptors and has been implicated in the analgesic and reinforcing effects of opiates.
This involves visual or auditory as well as shock pathways that project via the thalamus and perirhinal or insular cortex to the basolateral amygdala (BLA).
Striking effects of taste novelty on FLI were found in central amygdala (CNA) and insular cortex (IC) but not in basolateral amygdala (BLA), pontine parabrachial nucleus (PBN), or nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS).
Among a variety of brain regions including the parabrachial nucleus, amygdala, insular cortex, supramammillary nucleus, nucleus accumbens, and ventral pallidum that are involved in different phases of CTA expression, the enhanced taste sensitivity to facilitate detection of the conditioned stimulus may originate in the central nucleus of the amygdala and the hedonic shift, from positive to negative, may originate in the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala..
Incorporating distending volume into the regressor function for our fMRI analyses, we found that noxious fundic distension activated a widespread network of brain regions, including the pontine brainstem, thalami, cerebellum, insular cortex bilaterally, anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, right frontal lobe, and inferior parietal lobules. DISCUSSION: Our findings suggest that an extensive, predominantly fronto-limbic network of brain regions, including the insular cortex, mediates perception of noxious gastric fundic distension in healthy humans, without significant participation by the primary somatosensory cortex.
Furthermore, only supraliminal primes caused phonological repetition enhancement in left inferior frontal and anterior insular cortex.
Different research has shown that the insular cortex (IC) plays an important role during aversive memory formation, yet its role during incidental/non-aversive learning like pre-exposure contextual memory formation has received little attention. These results suggest that cholinergic activity in the insular cortex is necessary during the acquisition and consolidation of avoidance memory, but appears necessary only during the acquisition of pre-exposure non-aversive contextual memory..
During affective switching, patients recruited the left posterior OFC, bilateral insular cortex, bilateral dorsolateral, and bilateral anterior prefrontal cortex to a lesser extent than control subjects.
Larger reductions in mu-opioid system BP during sadness were obtained in patients with MDD in the anterior insular cortex, anterior and posterior thalamus, ventral basal ganglia, amygdala, and periamygdalar cortex.
RESULTS: In patients with alcohol dependence, VBM of GM revealed a significant decrease in density (p<0.001) in the precentral gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, insular cortex, dorsal hippocampus, anterior thalamus and cerebellum compared with controls.
Theta occurrence was mainly associated with activation of the insular cortex, hippocampus, superior temporal areas, cingulate cortex, superior parietal, and frontal areas.
Motivated reasoning was associated with activations of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, insular cortex, and lateral orbital cortex.
The fact that these cerebellar regions were found to be functionally coupled with the left parieto-insular cortex and the supplementary eye fields points to these cortical areas as the sites of interaction between predicted and experienced sensory events, ultimately giving rise to the perception of a stable world despite self-induced retinal motion..
Computed tomography (CT) showed a hypodense area in the left insular cortex and corona radiata.
Patterns of expression of NT-3 (defined by beta-galactosidase reporter expression in heterozygous offspring of transgenic NT-3(lacZneo/+) mice) revealed that limbic cortical regions (including frontal, cingulate, and insular cortex, as well as the dentate gyrus) express NT-3 and that these cortical regions receive early and relatively dense cholinergic axons (stained for acetylcholinesterase, AChE).
During acute SN in newly implanted patients, there were significant decreases in rCBF the medial cerebellum, and increases in the right postcentral gyrus cortex, the right insular cortex and the ventromedial orbitofrontal cortex.
In the insular cortex, IL1beta enhanced IL6 mRNA and TNFalpha increased IL1beta mRNA. TNFalpha administration increased NGF mRNA in the SSctx but decreased NGF and BDNF mRNA levels in the insular cortex.
The initial taste responses were localized in the fronto-parietal opercular/insular cortex reported as the primary taste area.
RESULTS: Our results show that lorazepam did not affect risky behavior at 0.25 and 1 mg, but dose-dependently attenuated activation in (a) the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex during the response selection phase, and in (b) the bilateral insular cortex and amygdala during the outcome (i.e., rewarded or punished) phase. Furthermore, a lorazepam-induced increase in insular cortex activation was associated with less risky responses.
We have now found that the number of immature neurons (doublecortin-positive cells) is markedly reduced in the piriform and insular cortex but not in the temporal germinal layer or caudal subventricular zone of R6/2 mice.
Finally, we propose that the immune system uses the interoceptive pathway projecting to the insular cortex, a brain region where cytokine-induced changes in appetite could be partly mediated, and that this pathway is activated in depression..
Anatomical connections of the insular cortex suggest its involvement in cognition, emotion, memory, and behavioral manifestation. However, there have been few neurophysiological studies on the insular cortex in primates, in relation to such higher cognitive functions. In the present study, neural activity was recorded from the monkey insular cortex during performance of a delayed-response delayed-reward go/nogo task. The results indicated that the neurons responding in each epoch of the task were topographically localized within the insular cortex, consistent with the previous anatomical studies indicating topographical distributions of afferent inputs from other subcortical and cortical sensory areas. The observed patterns of insular-neuron responses and the correspondence of their topographical localization to those in previous anatomical studies suggest that the insular cortex is involved in attention- and reward-related functions and might monitor and integrate activities of other brain regions during cognition and behavioral manifestation..
Multiple comparisons showed a poststudy increase in rCBF within the insular cortex (P < .001). Compared with the prestudy rCBF, BPO intervention increased rCBF in the right orbitofrontal and left insular cortex (P < .001).
We set out to identify the time courses of the activation of mitogen-associated protein kinase (MAPK), transcription factor cAMP-response element-binding protein (CREB) and Akt/PKB (protein kinase B) in the insular cortex and hippocampus of rats subsequent to novel taste learning. Following taste learning, an early response (20 min) occurred at the same time in the insular cortex and the hippocampus. However, whereas MAPK was activated specifically in the insular cortex, CREB and Akt were phosphorylated in the hippocampus but not in the cortex. In addition, the immediate early gene, CCAAT/enhancer binding protein (C/EBPbeta) was induced in both the hippocampus and the insular cortex 18 h following taste learning.
The insular cortex is a central site of autonomic and limbic integration and neuropathologic studies have indicated its involvement in the neurodegenerative process of PD. Our results suggest an association between the severity of PD-related neuropathology in the insular cortex and OH.
Putative afferent input to RTN originated from spinal cord, caudal NTS, area postrema, VRC, dorsolateral pons, raphe nuclei, lateral hypothalamus, central amygdala, and insular cortex.
Three distinct patterns of Fos induction were detected on test: 1) ABA renewal was associated with selective increases in c-Fos protein induction in basolateral amygdala, ventral accumbens shell, and lateral hypothalamus (but not in orexin- or melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH)-hypothalamic neurons); 2) being placed in the same context as extinction training (AAA or ABB) was associated with a selective decrease in c-Fos induction in rostral agranular insular cortex; 3) being placed in any context on test was associated with the up-regulation of c-Fos induction in anterior cingulate, dorsomedial accumbens shell, accumbens core, lateral septum, and substantia nigra. The results also suggest that rostral agranular insular cortex may play an important role in suppressing reward-seeking after extinction training..
RESULTS: Relative to healthy controls, both trauma-exposed groups had lower micro-opioid receptor BP2 in extended amygdala, nucleus accumbens, and dorsal frontal and insular cortex but had higher BP2 in the orbitofrontal cortex.
Women have a higher concentration in the orbitofrontal cortex involving Brodmann's areas 10, 11 and 25 and temporomedial cortex (bilateral hippocampus and right amygdala), as well as their left basal insular cortex. In contrast, men show a higher gray matter concentration in the left entorhinal cortex (Brodmann's area 28), right ventral pallidum, dorsal left insular cortex and a region of the orbitofrontal cortex (Brodmann's area 25).
The synaptic organization between and among the insular cortex (IC) axons, central amygdaloid nucleus (ACe) axons and posterolateral hypothalamus (PLH) neurons was investigated in the rat using double anterograde tracing and anterograde tracing combined with postembedding immunogold analysis.
The aim of the present study was to determine whether NMDA receptors in the insular cortex are involved in this experience-dependent process. Results showed that acute microinfusion of MK-801 into the insular cortex prevented the attenuation of gustatory neophobia indicating that this process is an NMDA receptor-dependent phenomenon..
These preliminary data are taking shape as a complex neuronal network involving the hypothalamus, thalamus, limbic and paralimbic areas including the insular cortex and the anterior cingulate gyrus and the orbitofrontal cortex.
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