The Insula and Evaluative Processes
Open accessAbstract
The insula has been implicated as a component of central networks subserving evaluative and affective processes. This study examined evaluative valence and arousal ratings in response to picture stimuli in patients with lesions of the insula and two contrast groups: a control-lesion group (the primary contrast group) and an amygdala-lesion group. Patients rated the positivity and negativity of picture stimuli (from very unpleasant to very pleasant) and how emotionally arousing they found the pictures to be. Compared with patients in the control-lesion group, patients with insular lesions reported reduced arousal in response to both unpleasant and pleasant stimuli, as well as marked attenuation of valence ratings. In contrast, the arousal ratings of patients with amygdala lesions were selectively attenuated for unpleasant stimuli, and these patients' positive and negative valence ratings did not differ from those of the control-lesion group. Results support the view that the insular cortex may play a broad role in integrating affective and cognitive processes, whereas the amygdala may have a more selective role in affective arousal, especially for negative stimuli.
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A reduction in the intensity of emotional experience follows insula lesions.
“There are some reports of a reduction in the intensity of emotional experience following insula lesions (Berntson et al., 2011; Borg et al., 2013)”
From Atypical interoception as a common risk factor for psychopathology: A review (2021) · cites this paper as Berntson et al., 2011
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- Authors
- Berntson, G. G., Norman, G. J., Bechara, A., Bruss, J., Tranel, D., & Cacioppo, J. T.
- Affiliations
- The Ohio State University (US)
- University of Southern California (US)
- University of Iowa (US)
- University of Chicago (US)
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2010-12-09
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 80-86
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- PMC
- PMC3261800
- OpenAlex
- W2138786123
- Cited by
- 136
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 5.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5p50ns019632-28)
- National Institute on Aging (P01AG018911, R37AG033590, R01AG034052)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA022549, R01DA023051, R01DA022549)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (P01NS019632, P50-NS019632, NS-19632)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- insula, amygdala, emotional valence, emotional arousal, emotional processing, picture stimuli, negative stimuli
- MeSH terms
- Affect, Amygdala, Analysis of Variance, Arousal, Cerebral Cortex, Cognition, Emotions, Female, Humans, Judgment, Male, Photic Stimulation
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