Neural activity of the anterior insula in emotional processing depends on the individuals' emotional susceptibility
Open accessAbstract
Differences in personality factors between individuals may manifest themselves with different patterns of neural activity while individuals process stimuli with emotional content. We attempted to verify this hypothesis by investigating emotional susceptibility (ES), a specific emotional trait of the human personality defined as the tendency to "experience feelings of discomfort, helplessness, inadequacy and vulnerability" after exposure to stimuli with emotional valence. By administering a questionnaire evaluating the individuals' ES, we selected two groups of participants with high and low ES respectively. Then, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate differences between the groups in the neural activity involved while they were processing emotional stimuli in an explicit (focusing on the content of the stimuli) or an incidental (focusing on spatial features of the stimuli, irrespectively of their content) way. The results showed a selective difference in brain activity between groups only in the explicit processing of the emotional stimuli: bilateral activity of the anterior insula was present in subjects with high ES but not in subjects with low ES. This difference in neural activity within the anterior insula proved to be purely functional since no brain morphological differences were found between groups, as assessed by a voxel-based morphometry analysis. Although the role of the anterior insula in the processing of contexts perceived as emotionally salient is well established, the present study provides the first evidence of a modulation of the insular activity depending on the individuals' ES trait of personality.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The structural characteristics of hippocampus and amygdala are associated with cognitive and emotional processing in waking tasks.
“the structural characteristics of hippocampus and amygdala are associated with cognitive and emotional processing in waking tasks”
From The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes (2019) · cites this paper as Iaria et al., 2008
The Discussion (page not supplied) links amygdala activity to emotional processing in a photograph task and reports prior findings relating amygdala gray matter volume to personality traits. It does not link structural characteristics of either the amygdala or hippocampus to cognitive and emotional processing during waking tasks; the hippocampus is not addressed in the retrieved passages. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
The CES-D Scale: A Self-Report Depression Scale for Research in the General Population
Radloff, L. S. (1977) · Applied Psychological Measurement · doi:10.1177/014662167700100306 · Cited by 53,267 · see citing works
Tzourio-Mazoyer, N., Landeau, B., Papathanassiou, D., Crivello, F., Etard, O., Delcroix, N., Mazoyer, B., & Joliot, M. (2002) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1006/nimg.2001.0978 · Cited by 16,319 · see citing works
Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain
Talairach, J., & Tournoux, P. (1988) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 11,798 · see citing works
Co-planar stereotaxic atlas of the human brain
Laitinen, L. (1989) · Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery · doi:10.1016/0303-8467(89)90128-5 · Cited by 7,565 · see citing works
Rizzolatti, G., & Craighero, L. (2004) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144230 · Cited by 7,433 · see citing works
How do you feel? Interoception: The sense of the physiological condition of the body
Craig, A. D. (2002) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn894 · Cited by 6,006 · see citing works
Empathy for Pain Involves the Affective but not Sensory Components of Pain
Singer, T., Seymour, B., O'Doherty, J., Kaube, H., Dolan, R. J., & Frith, C. D. (2004) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1093535 · Cited by 3,929 · see citing works
Neural systems supporting interoceptive awareness
Critchley, H. D., Wiens, S., Rotshtein, P., Öhman, A., & Dolan, R. J. (2004) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn1176 · Cited by 3,406 · cited 1× · see citing works
“For this reason, the insula has been associated with the subjective feeling of emotional states [Craig, 2002, 2003; Critchley et al., 2004].”
Cattaneo, L., & Rizzolatti, G. (2009) · Archives of Neurology · doi:10.1001/archneurol.2009.41 · Cited by 3,137 · see citing works
The happy personality: A meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being.
DeNeve, K. M., & Cooper, H. (1998) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.124.2.197 · Cited by 2,898 · see citing works
The amygdala: vigilance and emotion
Davis, M., & Whalen, P. J. (2001) · Molecular Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/sj.mp.4000812 · Cited by 2,882 · see citing works
Personality Development: Stability and Change
Caspi, A., Roberts, B. W., & Shiner, R. L. (2005) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141913 · Cited by 2,699 · see citing works
Influence of extraversion and neuroticism on subjective well-being: Happy and unhappy people
Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1980) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.38.4.668 · Cited by 2,652 · cited 2× · see citing works
“…as a series of symptoms that affect the individual’s emotional status: neurotic individuals usually show a r 370 r decreased feeling of subjective well-being, expressive laughter and smiling, and increased negative emotionality [Costa and McCrae, 1980; DeNeve and Cooper, 1998; Procyk et al., 2000].”
Influence of extraversion and neuroticism on subjective well-being: Happy and unhappy people.
Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1980) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.38.4.668 · Cited by 2,648 · see citing works
Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body
(Bud) Craig, A. (2003) · Current Opinion in Neurobiology · doi:10.1016/s0959-4388(03)00090-4 · Cited by 2,556 · cited 1× · see citing works
“For this reason, the insula has been associated with the subjective feeling of emotional states [Craig, 2002, 2003; Critchley et al., 2004].”
Both of Us Disgusted in My Insula
Wicker, B., Keysers, C., Plailly, J., Royet, J.-P., Gallese, V., & Rizzolatti, G. (2003) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/s0896-6273(03)00679-2 · Cited by 2,185 · see citing works
Neural mechanisms of empathy in humans: a relay from neural systems for imitation to limbic areas
Carr, L., Iacoboni, M., Dubeau, M.-C., Mazziotta, J. C., & Lenzi, G. L. (2003) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0935845100 · Cited by 1,978 · see citing works
A neuromodulatory role for the human amygdala in processing emotional facial expressions
Morris, J. (1998) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/121.1.47 · Cited by 1,291 · see citing works
Neural mechanisms of autonomic, affective, and cognitive integration
Critchley, H. D. (2005) · Journal of Comparative Neurology · doi:10.1002/cne.20749 · Cited by 1,214 · see citing works
A General Statistical Analysis for fMRI Data
Worsley, K. J., Liao, C. H., Aston, J. A. D., Petre, V., Duncan, G. H., Morales, F., & Evans, A. C. (2002) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1006/nimg.2001.0933 · Cited by 1,170 · see citing works
Pain intensity processing within the human brain: a bilateral, distributed mechanism
Coghill, R. C., Sang, C. N., Maisog, J. M., & Iadarola, M. J. (1999) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.1999.82.4.1934 · Cited by 1,077 · see citing works
Neural correlates of conscious self-regulation of emotion
Beauregard, M., Lévesque, J., & Bourgouin, P. (2001) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.21-18-j0001.2001 · Cited by 1,033 · see citing works
Duvernoy, H. M. (1999) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-7091-6792-2 · Cited by 759 · see citing works
Rolls, E. T. (1996) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.1996.0128 · Cited by 755 · see citing works
Paulus, M. P., Rogalsky, C., Simmons, A., Feinstein, J. S., & Stein, M. B. (2003) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/s1053-8119(03)00251-9 · Cited by 745 · see citing works
Personality and aggressive behavior under provoking and neutral conditions: A meta-analytic review.
Bettencourt, B. A., Talley, A. E., Benjamin, A. J., & Valentine, J. C. (2006) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.5.751 · Cited by 679 · see citing works
Nonlinear event‐related responses in fMRI
Friston, K. J., Josephs, O., Rees, G. E., & Turner, R. (1998) · Magnetic Resonance in Medicine · doi:10.1002/mrm.1910390109 · Cited by 629 · see citing works
The Human Brain: Surface, Three-Dimensional Sectional Anatomy and MRI
Duvernoy, H. M., Cabanis, E. A., & Vannson, J. L. (1991) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 574 · see citing works
The “big five questionnaire”: A new questionnaire to assess the five factor model
Caprara, G. V., Barbaranelli, C., Боргогни, Л., & Perugini, M. (1993) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/0191-8869(93)90218-r · Cited by 499 · see citing works
Amygdala response to happy faces as a function of extraversion
Canli, T., Sivers, H., Whitfield, S. L., Gotlib, I. H., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2002) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1068749 · Cited by 493 · see citing works
Davis, K. D., Kwan, C. L., Crawley, A. P., & Mikulis, D. J. (1998) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.1998.80.3.1533 · Cited by 461 · see citing works
Francis, S., Rolls, E. T., Bowtell, R. W., McGlone, F. P., O’Doherty, J. P., Browning, A., Clare, S., & Smith, E. (1999) · Neuroreport · doi:10.1097/00001756-199902250-00003 · Cited by 421 · see citing works
Anterior cingulate activity during routine and non-routine sequential behaviors in macaques
Procyk, E., Tanaka, Y. L., & Joseph, J. (2000) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/74880 · Cited by 290 · see citing works
Anatomy of the insula functional and clinical correlates
Flynn, F. G. (1999) · Aphasiology · doi:10.1080/026870399402325 · Cited by 271 · see citing works
Northoff, G. (2000) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/10.1.93 · Cited by 262 · see citing works
Canli, T. (2004) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2004.00292.x · Cited by 241 · see citing works
Amygdala gray matter concentration is associated with extraversion and neuroticism
Omura, K., Constable, R. T., & Canli, T. (2005) · Neuroreport · doi:10.1097/01.wnr.0000186596.64458.76 · Cited by 220 · see citing works
Cerebral Blood Flow and Personality: A Positron Emission Tomography Study
Johnson, D. L., Wiebe, J. S., Gold, S. M., Andreasen, N. C., Hichwa, R. D., Watkins, G. L., & Ponto, L. L. B. (1999) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/ajp.156.2.252 · Cited by 204 · see citing works
Caprara, G. V., Cinanni, V., D’Imperio, G., Passerini, S., Renzi, P., & Travaglia, G. (1985) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/0191-8869(85)90077-7 · Cited by 182 · see citing works
Personality predicts activity in reward and emotional regions associated with humor
Mobbs, D., Hagan, C. C., Azim, E., Menon, V., & Reiss, A. L. (2005) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0408457102 · Cited by 158 · see citing works
A face to remember: emotional expression modulates prefrontal activity during memory formation
Sergerie, K., Lepage, M., & Armony, J. (2005) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.08.051 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
Correlation between Human Personality and Neural Activity in Cerebral Cortex
Sugiura, M., Kawashima, R., Nakagawa, M., Okada, K., Sato, T., Goto, R., Sato, K., Ono, S., Schormann, T., Zilles, K., et al. (2000) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1006/nimg.2000.0564 · Cited by 129 · see citing works
Negative association of neuroticism with brain volume ratio in healthy humans.
Knutson, B., Momenan, R., Rawlings, R., Fong, G. W., & Hommer, D. (2001) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s0006-3223(01)01220-3 · Cited by 129 · see citing works
Emotional activation of limbic circuitry in elderly normal subjects in a PET study
(1997) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/ajp.154.3.384 · Cited by 121 · see citing works
Emotions, behaviours and mood changes in stroke
Carota, A., Staub, F., & Bogousslavsky, J. (2002) · Current Opinion in Neurology · doi:10.1097/00019052-200202000-00010 · Cited by 117 · see citing works
Self-citationRegional cerebral brain metabolism correlates of neuroticism and extraversion
Deckersbach, T., Miller, K. K., Klibanski, A., Fischman, A. J., Dougherty, D. D., Blais, M. A., Herzog, D. B., & Rauch, S. L. (2006) · Depression and Anxiety · doi:10.1002/da.20152 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
Toward a reorientation of research on aggression
Caprara, G. V., & Pastorelli, C. (1989) · European Journal of Personality · doi:10.1002/per.2410030206 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Self-citationPhysiologie und Pathophysiologie viszeraler Schmerzen
Jänig, W., & Häbler, H. (2002) · Der Schmerz · doi:10.1007/s00482-002-0187-5 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Onitsuka, T., Nestor, P. G., Gurrera, R. J., Shenton, M. E., Kasai, K., Frumin, M., Niznikiewicz, M. A., & McCarley, R. W. (2005) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.162.3.599 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Miller, G. (2005) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.308.5724.945 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Stanko, E. A. (1994) · Aggressive Behavior · doi:10.1002/1098-2337(1994)20:4 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Trait congruence in the study of the cognitive consequences of emotional arousal
Caprara, G. V., Spizzichino, C., & Romeo, C. (1989) · European Journal of Personality · doi:10.1002/per.2410030405 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Review.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Plichta, M. M., Vasic, N., Wolf, R. C., Lesch, K.-P., Brummer, D., Jacob, C., Fallgatter, A. J., & Grön, G. (2009) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.07.008 · Cited by 272 · see citing works
How does interoceptive awareness interact with the subjective experience of emotion? An fMRI Study
Terasawa, Y., Fukushima, H., & Umeda, S. (2013) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.21458 · Cited by 228 · see citing works
Anterior insular cortex mediates bodily sensibility and social anxiety
Terasawa, Y., Shibata, M., Moriguchi, Y., & Umeda, S. (2013) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nss108 · Cited by 224 · see citing works
The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes
Scarpelli, S., Bartolacci, C., D'Atri, A., Gorgoni, M., & De Gennaro, L. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00459 · Cited by 190 · see citing works
“Once again, the regions engaged in emotional encoding and consolidation showed a strong relationship with dream contents, consistently with the studies revealing that the structural characteristics of hippocampus and amygdala are associated with cognitive and emotional processing in waking tasks (Maguire et al., 2000;…”
ResultMeta-analysis of functional brain imaging in specific phobia
Ipser, J. C., Singh, L., & Stein, D. J. (2013) · Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences · doi:10.1111/pcn.12055 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
- Authors
- Iaria, G., Committeri, G., Pastorelli, C., Pizzamiglio, L., Watkins, K. E., & Carota, A.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- University of Chieti-Pescara (IT)
- Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CH)
- Venue
- Human Brain Mapping
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2007-04-05
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 363-373
- ISSN
- 1065-9471 (ISSN-L)
- 1097-0193
- PMC
- PMC6870803
- OpenAlex
- W2134896823
- Cited by
- 44
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 1.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Human Brain Mapping (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- IRIS (submittedVersion)
- IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) (submittedVersion)
- SERVAL (Université de Lausanne) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministero della Salute
- Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- anterior insula, emotional vulnerability, emotional processing, personality traits, emotional valence, voxel-based morphometry
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Analysis of Variance, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Emotions, Facial Expression, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Oxygen, Personality, Photic Stimulation, Psychological Tests, Reaction Time
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
