Insular cortex

Oppenheimer SM, Gelb A, Girvin JP, Hachinski VC. Cardiovascular effects of human insular cortex stimulation. Neurology 1992 42(9) 1727-1732. 

Meyer S, Strittmatter M, Fischer C, Georg T, Schmitz B. Lateralization in autonomic dysfunction in ischemic stroke involving the insular cortex. Neuroreport 2004 15(2) 357-361. 

A variety of brain structures seem to be essential for aversive memories. In the following, I will briefly introduce the hippocampus and amygdala involvement, without disregarding the importance, for instance, of the cerebellum for eye-blink conditioning (Thompson et al. 1997, 2000 Medina et al. 2002) and the insular cortex for conditioned taste aversion (e.g. Berman and Dudai 2001). 

A neural circuit composed of several regions of the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, medial preoptic area, hypothalamus, anterior cingulate cortex, insular cortex, ventral striatum, and other interconnected structures has been implicated in emotion regiflation including the associated affective... 

Shi, C. J., and Cassell, M. D. (1998). Cascade projections from somatosensory cortex to the rat basolateral amygdala via the parietal insular cortex. J. Comp. Neurol. 399, 469-491. 

Rivier F, Clarke S. 1997. Cytochrome oxidase, acetylcholinesterase, and NADPHD-diaphorase staining in human supratemporal and insular cortex Evidence for multiple auditory areas. Neuroimage 6 288-304. 

J. NAA/Cho, f Cho/Cr in ACC of patients GM correlated positively with NAA/Cho in ACC of patients negative association between NAA/Cho and severity of blunted affect symptom in schizophrenics J. NAA/Cr, Cho/Cr, ml/Cr in ACC, thalamus and insular cortex of GS patients compared with controls and non-GS patients [ NAA/Cr, Cho/Cr, ml/Cr in ACC and insular cortex of non-GS patients compared with controls J, NAA/Cr in left and right TL of schizophrenic patients... 

Saper CB (1982) Convergence of autonomic and limbic connections in the insular cortex of the rat. J Comp Neurol 270(2) 163-173. 

Fig. 7. Anatomical organization of dopamine Di mRNA expression in the adult human brain (whole hemisphere horizontal images) at a dorsal (A) and ventral (B) level. Notice strong cortical expression of this dopamine receptor subtype in addition to the intense expression levels in the striatum (CN, Pu and NAc). Adapted from Hurd et al. (2001). aCg, anterior cingulate Amy, amygdala Cb, cerebellum cc, corpus callosum CN, caudate nucleus Cun, cuneus F, frontal lobe Hip, hippocampus hyp, hypothalamus I, insular cortex mPFC, medial prefrontal cortex mm, medial mammillary nucleus NAc, nucleus accumbens O, occipital lobe Phg, parahippocampal gyrus Pu, putamen SN, substantia nigra T, temporal lobe U, uncal gyrus.

Fig. 10. Anatomical organization of the dopamine D5 mRNA in the adult human brain (coronal images). The images represent the D5 expression pattern in a whole coronal hemisphere section at a mid-striatal level (A) and a coronal section at the postcommissural striatal level (B). Note the intense D5 mRNA expression primarily in the cerebral cortex (e.g. mOPFC and SF). Moderate to strong labeling is also apparent in the claustrum and anterior amygdala nucleus. aCg, anterior cingulate AAA, anterior amygdala nucleus B, magnocellular basal forebrain complex cc, corpus callosum Cl, claustrum CN, caudate nucleus F, frontal hyp, hypothalamus I, insular cortex OPFC, orbital prefrontal cortex NAc, nucleus accumbens Pu, putamen SF, superior frontal T, temporal cortex.

However, these results have been questioned, and are not considered reliable (Seeman and Van Tol, 1995). More specific radioligands have been developed recently. Using the new D4 dopamine receptor radioligand [3H]NGD-94-l, D4 dopamine receptors were identified in the hippocampus, hypothalamus, dorsal medial thalamus, entorhinal cortex, insular cortex, prefrontal cortex and lateral septal nucleus (Primus et al., 1997 Lahti et al., 1998). In contrast to the distribution of DrD3 dopamine receptors, no binding was seen in the basal ganglia. These results correspond to the distribution of D4 dopamine receptor mRNA. 

Mitral and tufted cells in the olfactory bulb project their axons to the olfactory cortex, the site thought to integrate the signals from distinct glomeruli. The olfactory signals processed in the olfactory cortex are sent to a variety of higher centers of the brain, which include insular cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, amygdale, hippocampus, and the nucleus accumbens.205... 

Oppenheimer SM, Martin WM, Kedem G (1996). Left insular cortex lesions perturb cardiac autonomic tone. Clinical Autonomic Research 6 131-140... 

Cheshire WP Jr., Saper CB (2006). The insular cortex and cardiac response to stroke. Neurology 66 1296-1297... 

There are three other major somatosensory cortical areas, w hich include the primary, secondary, and tertiary somatosensory cortical areas and are soma to topically organized. The secondary somatosensory cortex and the posterior parietal cortex receive their projections from the primary somatosensory cortex and the posterior insular cortex receives input from the secondary somatosensory cortex. Corticortical projections as well as callasol connections are made by neurons of layers two and three. Descending projections to the striatum, brainstem, and spinal cord originate from neurons in layer five, w hile projections to the thalamus originate from neurons in layer six. 

The middle cerebral artery, which originates at the division of the internal carotid artery, passes through the lateral sulcus (Sylvian fissure) en route to the lateral convexity of the cerebral hemisphere, to which it supplies blood. The middle cerebral artery travels along the surface of the insular cortex, over the inner surface of the frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes, and appears on the lateral convexity. The posterior cerebral arteries originate at the bifurcation of the basilar artery, and each one passes around the lateral margin of the midbrain. 

A 10-year-old bone marrow recipient was given ABLC 7 mg/kg/day for prolonged periods of time. Ablation therapy before transplantation included cytosine arabinoside, cyclophosphamide, and total body irradiation. He developed progressive parkinsonian features an MRI scan showed non-specific frontal cortex white matter abnormalities, and brain MR spectroscopy was consistent with significant neuronal loss in the left insular cortex, left basal ganglia, and... 

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