Insular Cortex

[INRM]

From what I've read, I've heard the Insula plays a part in addition and people who sustained damage to the Insula no longer were addicted to things they previously were addicted to (like smoking)


BTW: I also wonder if it would suggest it plays a role in consciousness... as I read that it works by translating electrical signals into subjective feelings. Is this true? To the best of my knowledge the Insula does get signals from the thalamus... (thalmocortical oscillations are needed for consciousness)


INRM

[Dancing David]

Um, nothing translates electrical signals, they are biochemical signals.

Do we need to discuss that thalmocortical oscillations are related to levels of arousal again.

Why not use Google?

You would have found this:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17416488

[INRM]

Dancing David,

Um, nothing translates electrical signals, they are biochemical signals.

Sorry about that, I made a mistake. What you said was what I meant though...


Regardless, though, the Insula (and I read the link and how a lot of sensory area converges on the insular cortex) seems to be needed for consciousness, no?


INRM

[Dancing David]

A brain is needed for consciousness, most of it.

[INRM]

Dancing David,

But what I meant was a key part in consciousness...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insular_cortex
The insular cortex, in particular its most anterior portion, is considered a limbic-related cortex. The insula has increasingly become the focus of attention for its role in body representation and subjective emotional experience. In particular, Antonio Damasio has proposed that this region plays a role in mapping visceral states that are associated with emotional experience, giving rise to conscious feelings. This is in essence a neurobiological formulation of the ideas of William James, who first proposed that subjective emotional experience (i.e. feelings) arise from our brain's interpretation of bodily states that are elicited by emotional events. This is an example of embodied cognition.
(Bold Emphasis Mine)

What this seems to suggest is that the Insula is the link where brain activity is turned into emotional and conscious feelings...

That strikes me as being a root of consciousness, now doesn't it?


INRM

[Reality Check]

Dancing David,

But what I meant was a key part in consciousness...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insular_cortex

(Bold Emphasis Mine)

What this seems to suggest is that the Insula is the link where brain activity is turned into emotional and conscious feelings...

That strikes me as being a root of consciousness, now doesn't it?


INRM
It depends on what "conscious feelings" means. The authors could mean

feelings that you know about- as opposed to unconscious feelings.
feelings that you have when you are awake - as opposed to asleep (unconscious ?) feelings.
feelings that you know about- as opposed to unconscious feelings.
feelings that contribute to someone's definition of consciousness.
The next paragraph suggest one of the first 2 interpretations (a desire that the person is aware of):

Functional imaging studies have also implicated the insula in conscious desires, such as food craving and drug craving. What is common to all of these emotional states is that they each change the body in some way and are associated with highly salient subjective qualities. The insula is well situated for the integration of information relating to bodily states into higher-order cognitive and emotional processes. The insula receives information from "homeostatic afferent" sensory pathways via the thalamus and sends output to a number of other limbic-related structures, such as the amygdala, the ventral striatum and the orbitofrontal cortex.

[Dancing David]

Dancing David,

But what I meant was a key part in consciousness...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insular_cortex

(Bold Emphasis Mine)

What this seems to suggest is that the Insula is the link where brain activity is turned into emotional and conscious feelings...

That strikes me as being a root of consciousness, now doesn't it?


INRM

Um, not to me.

This is one area where this happens, you are not going to find a place that is the root of consciousness. There are way too many processes for that. That is just one area in the lower brain.

There are body maps in the upper cortex as well, there are places where the kinesthetic sense and the vestibular sense are processed in the upper cortex.

try to define consciousness, most of it, other than levels of arousal, will be a upper cortical function.

You need the whole brain for consciousness.

[INRM]

RealityCheck,

I'm talking about arousal, sensations that contribute to arousal, and conscious sensations and feelings...

[leon_heller]

Arousal or activation is a very low-level component of consciousness.

Leon

[Reality Check]

RealityCheck,

I'm talking about arousal, sensations that contribute to arousal, and conscious sensations and feelings...
The question is what are the authors of the article talking about?
My interpretation is that the article is about "conscious sensations and feelings" as opposed to "subconscious sensations and feelings" or "unconscious sensations and feelings".

The word "conscious" need not mean a part of consciousness.

In any case my view of consciousness is that it is an emergent property (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence) and so the entire brain contributes to it, including the insular cortex.

[INRM]

Reality Check,

I'm not disputing you in that consciousness is an emergent phenomenon...

[Reality Check]

Reality Check,

I'm not disputing you in that consciousness is an emergent phenomenon...
... in that case there is no sense in labeling a part of the brain as having a "key part in consciousness" or "being a root of consciousness" since you can do that for any part of the brain. That is as valid as picking out an individual neuron and stating that it is a key part in consciousness.

[INRM]

I don't know if I would say that. The occipital lobe to my knowledge is not integral to consciousness...


INRM

[Reality Check]

I don't know if I would say that. The occipital lobe to my knowledge is not integral to consciousness...


INRM
I would say that vision might be "integral" to consciousness (blind people seem to have consciousness) but the point still is that it is the entire brain that is "integral to consciousness" not any bit of it.

[Dancing David]

I don't know if I would say that. The occipital lobe to my knowledge is not integral to consciousness...


INRM


So you remove perceptions from consciousness?

[INRM]

To the best of my knowledge the occipital lobe is required for visual perception...

[Dancing David]

yes but with a loose defintion of consciousness or even lacking one, what is your point?

Awarness of sensation , IE the process of perception is a huge part of consciousness.

So why not try to explain yourself rather than remaining opaque?

Emotions are percetions too, so what is the big deal about the insular cortex again? That it is involved in the coordination of some emotional perceptions?

What do you think this might mean "mapping visceral states that are associated with emotional experience" ? Perception of viseral states (whatever somatic sensations and perceptions that is loosely reffering to.) ?