Insular Cortex is Critical for the Perception, Modulation, and Chronification of Pain
Open accessAbstract
An increasing body of neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies of the brain suggest that the insular cortex (IC) integrates multimodal salient information ranging from sensation to cognitive-affective events to create conscious interoception. Especially with regard to pain experience, the IC has been supposed to participate in both sensory-discriminative and affective-motivational aspects of pain. In this review, we discuss the latest data proposing that subregions of the IC are involved in isolated pain networks: the posterior sensory circuit and the anterior emotional network. Due to abundant connections with other brain areas, the IC is likely to serve as an interface where cross-modal shaping of pain occurs. In chronic pain, however, this mode of emotional awareness and the modulation of pain are disrupted. We highlight some of the molecular mechanisms underlying the changes of the pain modulation system that contribute to the transition from acute to chronic pain in the IC.
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The pIC, especially the GI, serves as the primary cortical hub for receiving and processing exteroceptive pain-related signals.
“The pIC, especially the GI, serves as the primary cortical hub for receiving and processing exteroceptive pain-related signals [44].”
From The Insular Cortex: An Interface Between Sensation, Emotion and Cognition (2024) · cites this paper as [44]
The ‘Functional Profile of the Posterior Insular Cortex in Pain Sensation’ section (page not provided) says the posterior insula receives nociceptive afferents and participates in processing the sensory features of pain; it also identifies a granular subregion with somatosensory connections. It describes the posterior insula as part of a cortical network, however, not as the primary cortical hub, and does not establish that the granular insula has that particular primacy. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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References 99 · Cited by 270
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Lane RD, Schwartz GE. Levels of emotional awareness: a cog- nitive-developmental theory and its application to psy- chopathology. Am J Psychiatry 1987, 144: 133-143.
- Floyd NS, Price JL, Ferry AT, Keay KA, Bandler R. Orbitome- dial prefrontal cortical projections to distinct longitudinal col- umns of the periaqueductal gray in the rat. J Comp Neurol 2000, 422: 556-578.
- Authors
- Lu, C., Yang, T., Zhao, H., Zhang, M., Meng, F., Fu, H., Xie, Y., & Xu, H.
- Affiliations
- Air Force Medical University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Xu, Hui
- Venue
- Neuroscience Bulletin
- Published
- 2016-02-22
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 191-201
- ISSN
- 1995-8218 (ISSN-L)
- 1673-7067
- PMC
- PMC5563738
- OpenAlex
- W2287403089
- Cited by
- 270
- References
- 99
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 47 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3
- FWCI
- 1.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Neuroscience Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (HG3503, 31371120)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Pain Mechanisms and Treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Pain Management and Treatment
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Keywords
- insula, pain perception, pain modulation, interoception, sensory-discriminative pain, chronic pain, acute to chronic pain transition
- MeSH terms
- Cerebral Cortex, Discrimination, Psychological, Emotions, Humans, Neural Pathways, Pain Perception, Chronic Pain
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