Plantæ ex insula Tschedschu

The Insula and Taste Learning

The sense of taste is a key component of the sensory machinery, enabling the evaluation of both the safety as well as forming associations regarding the nutritional value of ingestible substances. Indicative of the salience of the modality, taste conditioning can be achieved in rodents upon a single pairing of a tastant with a chemical stimulus inducing malaise. This robust associative learning...

Stroke Modifies Drug Consumption in Opium Addicts:Role of the Insula

Introduction: Addiction imposes a large medical, social and economic burden on societies. Currently, there is no effective treatment for addiction. Our struggle to decipher the different mechanisms involved in addiction requires a proper understanding of the brain regions which promote this devastating behavior. Previous studies have shown a pivotal role for insula in cigarette smoking. In this...

Activation of Anterior Insula during Self-Reflection

BACKGROUND Functional neuroimaging studies have suggested activation of midline frontoparietal brain regions to be at the core of self-related processes. However, although some studies reported involvement of the insula, little attention has been paid to this region as forming part of the "self"-network. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we aim...

The hidden island of addiction: the insula.

Most prior research on the neurobiology of addiction has focused on the role of subcortical systems, such as the amygdala, the ventral striatum and mesolimbic dopamine system, in promoting the motivation to seek drugs. Recent evidence indicates that a largely overlooked structure, the insula, plays a crucial part in conscious urges to take drugs. The insula has been highlighted as a region that...

All roads lead to the insula.