The role of insular cortex in the integration of emotion, perception and cognition

• Main Author: Jones, Catherine Louise
• Published: University of Brighton 2012
• Subjects: 612.825
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.590010

Influential models highlight that insular cortex integrates cognitive, affective, sensorimotor and autonomic signals to create unified perceptual experiences or "feeling states". One challenge in developing a satisfactory neuropsychological model of insula function is to account for its involvement across these different domains which require access across multiple functional circuits. This thesis combines behavioural, psychophysiological, functional neuroimaging and lesion methods to inform and extend current models of integration in the insula. In the first two experimental chapters, the integration of cognitive and emotional signals in risky decision making and autonomic regulation and feedback are investigated. In the final two experimental chapters the role of the insula in combining sensory information in the creation of perceptual illusions is explored. I find that the insula mediates urgent decision making, that damage to the insula can disrupt integrative processes in the context of multisensory integration and that the affective elements of synaesthetic illusions are associated with insula engagement. Together these findings shape our understanding of how the insula acts to integrate signals across different contexts and make an important and novel contribution in the development of a potentially unitary account of insula function.