Role Of Right Insula Research Articles

The role of right insula and its functional connectivity in the regulation of negative implicit stereotypes against rural migrant workers.

Previous studies have revealed that stereotyping processes involving negative affective content (e.g., antipathy) can lead to a significant increase in insula activity. However, whether the insula is sensitive to stereotype inconsistency or plays a crucial role in stereotype regulation remains unclear. To help fill this gap, 21 young adults were presented with a modified single-category implicit association test (SC-IAT) that assessed their stereotypes about rural migrant workers. In a within-subjects design, participants completed separate blocks of compatible and incompatible trials, each of which consisted of stereotype-consistent or stereotype-inconsistent trait labels that had a positive or a negative valence. Functional MRI was used to identify specific brain regions associated with negative and positive stereotyping. The behavioral results revealed a typical stereotype regulation effect in which participants responded slower to stereotype-inconsistent condition than stereotype-consistent condition, although such effect was significantly modulated by IAT compatibility, rather than by emotional valence. MRI results revealed that activity in the right insula was significantly sensitive to stereotype regulation processes in negative incompatible tasks, whereas such effect was marginally significant in positive incompatible tasks. Moreover, psychophysiological interaction analyses indicated complex functional connectivity among the right insula and cognitive control regions [e.g., ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC)], social mentalizing regions [medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)], and motivation regions (putamen) in the condition where negative stereotypes were violated. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that the right insula serves as a crucial node in regulating implicit stereotyping, particularly in negative stereotyping tasks.

Interaction between neuroanatomical and psychological changes after mindfulness-based training.

Several cross-sectional studies have documented neuroanatomical changes in individuals with a long history of meditation, while a few evidences are available about the interaction between neuroanatomical and psychological changes even during brief exposure to meditation. Here we analyzed several morphometric indexes at both cortical and subcortical brain level, as well as multiple psychological dimensions, before and after a brief -8 weeks- Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training program, in a group of 23 meditation naïve-subjects compared to age-gender matched subjects. We found a significant cortical thickness increase in the right insula and the somatosensory cortex of MBSR trainees, coupled with a significant reduction of several psychological indices related to worry, state anxiety, depression and alexithymia. Most importantly, an interesting correlation between the increase in right insula thickness and the decrease in alexithymia levels during the MBSR training were observed. Moreover, a multivariate pattern classification approach allowed to identify a cluster of regions more responsive to MBSR training across subjects. Taken together, these findings documented the significant impact of a brief MBSR training on brain structures, as well as stressing the idea of MBSR as a valuable tool for alexithymia modulation, also originally providing a plausible neurobiological evidence of a major role of right insula into mediating the observed psychological changes.