concept

anterior insular cortex

Also known as: AIC, anterior insular cortex, anterior insula

Facts (20)

Sources

Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART) frontiersin.org Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 19 facts

claimBressler and Menon (2010) propose that salience processing by the anterior insular cortex (AIC) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays a causal role in switching between task-positive and task-negative networks.

claimManna et al. (2010) found that the left anterior insular cortex (AIC) cluster in Open Monitoring (OM) meditation practice is positively correlated with areas related to executive monitoring and attention in the left hemisphere, specifically the anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC), superior parietal lobule (sPL), and superior temporal gyrus (STG).

claimThe anterior insular cortex (AIC) serves a dual role: mapping internal states with respect to the self, and predictive representations or simulation of how emotional stimuli feel to others.

referenceThe fronto-parietal control system (FPCS) consists of the rostral frontopolar prefrontal cortex (FPC), right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), anterior insular cortex (AIC), lateral cerebellum, and anterior inferior parietal lobe (aIPL).

measurementLong-term vipassana meditation practitioners with over 6000 hours of experience have shown increased gray matter concentration in the anterior insular cortex (AIC), as reported by Holzel et al. in 2008.

claimBrain areas involved in mentalizing include the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), temporal pole (TP), anterior insular cortex (AIC), precuneus, and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC).

measurementTwo cross-sectional studies comparing gray matter (GM) morphometry between experienced meditators (8 weeks) and naïve controls showed greater cortical thickness and GM concentration in the right anterior insula.

claimAnterior insular cortex (AIC) activation is inversely correlated with posteromedial cortex (PMC) activation, including the precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and retrosplenial cortex (RSP), during tasks related to awareness and attention.

referenceA. D. Craig authored the 2009 paper 'Emotional moments across time: a possible neural basis for time perception in the anterior insula', published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

claimThe processing of high-resolution interoceptive information by the anterior insular cortex (AIC) facilitates phenomenological experience related to conscious awareness and likely improves self-regulation and autonomic control.

claimThe human anterior insular cortex (AIC) integrates higher-order social, emotional, motivational, and cognitive components of subjective feeling states through functional and anatomical connectivity with the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), ventral medial pre-frontal cortex (VMPFC), and lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC).

measurementMeditators show increased BOLD activity in the right anterior insular cortex (AIC), somatosensory cortex (SII), and the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) when using an experiential focus compared to control subjects, according to Farb et al. (2007).

claimThe insula integrates salient activity and feelings in a posterior-to-anterior direction, where non-conscious homeostatic and motor functions are mapped in the posterior insula, while contextually based relations to conscious experience (hedonic, motivational, social, and emotional feelings) are represented in the anterior insula.

claimSelf-relevant information is attributed an emotional tone in the ventral posterior nucleus (Vpo) of the thalamus before being somatotopically represented in the posterior and anterior insula (PIC/AIC).

measurementA 2011 study by Holzel et al. did not find changes in cortical thickness or gray matter concentration in the right anterior insula when comparing experienced meditators to naïve controls.

claimThe Frontoparietal Control System (FPCS) has functional overlap with the Experiential Self-specifying (EPS) network, which includes the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), and anterior insular cortex (AIC).

claimThe anterior insular cortex (AIC) represents an ultimate 'global emotional moment' of the sentient self at any given moment in time.

claimStudies by Creswell et al. (2007), Holzel et al. (2007), and Farb et al. (2010) found that meditation is associated with increased right anterior insular cortex (AIC) activity coupled with decreases in the posterior parietal cortex and cortical midline structures.

claimA study by Lazar et al. (2005) of Vipassana practitioners with over 2,500 hours of practice found increased cortical thickness in the anterior insular cortex (AIC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC), and sensory cortices.

The Mechanisms of Psychedelic Visionary Experiences - Frontiers frontiersin.org Frontiers Sep 27, 2017 1 fact

referenceThe ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has strong connections to limbic structures (amygdala, hippocampus), cortical areas mediating limbic structures (orbitofrontal cortex and anterior insula), the periaqueductal gray, the nucleus accumbens, and the hypothalamus, giving it a central role in assessing and mediating emotionally salient stimuli, as stated by Washington and VanMeter (2015).