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Structural Connectivity of the Insula

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Island of Reil (Insula) in the Human Brain

Abstract

The insula is a multimodal structure located underneath the Sylvian fissure and is considered as a paralimbic region. It is widely connected to several cortical areas in the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes, as well as subcortical regions such as the thalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus. The insular sulcus divides it into an anterior and a posterior part. Its strategic location and extensive connectivity subserves a wide range of functions. Among them are the processing of visceral, somatosensory, gustatory, olfactory, and auditory inputs, language, motivation, awareness, craving, addiction, and emotions such as empathy and disgust. The implication of the insula in these numerous functions makes it a staple relay structure of the brain. In this chapter, we will examine the anatomy and structural connectivity profile of the insula, based on tract-tracing studies in nonhuman primates as well as diffusion tractography and postmortem studies in humans.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Jimmy Ghaziri

  2. Département de Neurosciences, Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CRCHUM), Montréal, QC, Canada

    Jimmy Ghaziri & Dang Khoa Nguyen

  3. Service de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM), Montréal, QC, Canada

    Dang Khoa Nguyen

Authors
  1. Jimmy Ghaziri
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  2. Dang Khoa Nguyen
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Correspondence to Dang Khoa Nguyen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Adnan Menderes University, School of Medicine , Aydın, Turkey

    Mehmet Turgut

  2. Ege University, Department of Anatomy, Izmir, Turkey

    Canan Yurttaş

  3. Seattle Science Foundation, Seattle, Washington, USA

    R. Shane Tubbs

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Ghaziri, J., Nguyen, D.K. (2018). Structural Connectivity of the Insula. In: Turgut, M., Yurttaş , C., Tubbs, R. (eds) Island of Reil (Insula) in the Human Brain. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75468-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75468-0_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-75467-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-75468-0

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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