Insular Cortex: Learning From Painful Experiences

Which memory comes back brighter to your mind: the one you ate candy for the first time, or the one you crashed on a bike and hurt yourself? Almost everyone chooses the latter option. It seems that people remember painful experiences better than positive things. Recent studies suggest that the insular cortex in the brain (the area responsible for processing pain) acts as an implementer of this type of learning.

Thanks to this research, neuroscience has been able to build a neuro-anatomical foundation for pre-defined cognitive processes. In Finnish, you can read more about pain management in the brain, for example, in this article.

The cortex is the layer of gray matter on the surface of the brain. In addition to the primary cortex regions, there are secondary cortex regions in the cortex that function in combining and interpreting information entering the cortex.

The connection between the processing of painful experiences and the lessons learned from it seems to be in the insular cortex, also called the cerebral islet. It is located in the deep area between the folds of the temporal and frontal lobes and separates the temporal lobes from the main and anterior lobes.

The importance of learning from painful experiences

Evolution has given mankind an effective means of survival called “learning from threat”. The survival of our species has been dependent on this very type of learning. Other species also experience some degree of “threat learning” through their own species-specific nervous system.

This method protects you by remembering past inconveniences. Remembering, in turn, will help you avoid similar, potentially harmful or even painful situations in the future. In practice, therefore, it prevents you from making the same mistake twice.

Insular cortex and its role

Scientists have long wondered which area of ​​the brain alerts other parts of the brain to a painful experience to trigger the “learning from threat” process. Despite the fact that scientists have known for some time that at least the almond kernel has some role to play here, they still lacked some connections.

Studies show that the almond nucleus plays a key role in assessing the emotional response to the stimulus obtained. Nevertheless, the scientists had not found the part of the brain that seems to act as the conductor of the orchestra. They wanted to find out what connects all the processes that take place in the brain and creates a significant and holistic lesson for them.

After lengthy investigations, an insular cortex was finally found, located deep hidden in a lateral or lateral crease of the brain, which is responsible for sending alarm signals due to unpleasant events. Despite the fact that almond nucleus neurons and insular neurons appear to be related, researchers have only recently begun to study their actual function.

In the study mentioned at the beginning, rats were used as experimental animals, as the insular cortex of this animal is very similar to that of the human cortex. The researchers found that if they severed the animal’s insular cortex during an unpleasant event, the rats were no longer afraid of similar possible future painful events.

The researchers also found that rats in the lab with the insular cortex severed experienced difficulty learning from previous painful experiences.

Insular cortex and emotion processing

Researchers have shown that the insular cortex plays an important role during painful experiences. However, it is also significantly involved in experiencing many basic feelings. The insular cortex treats love, hate, disgust, pain, sadness, and happiness alike. From an anatomical point of view, the insular cortex is in the perfect place to participate in two specific events:

• Transmitting information related to body condition during various emotional processes.
• A wide range of high-level cognitive processes.

The mediator here is the connection between changes in the body (triggered by different emotional states) and how the person himself experiences these changes qualitatively and subjectively. In other words, the  insular cortex tells your brain what your body is doing and what belongs to it.

What do these new results tell us?

Researchers have shown that the insular cortex sends information to the brain about the state of the body. However, it can also send strong warning signals to other parts of the brain. These areas in question are all involved in creating memories of unpleasant or painful events.

Neuroscientists believe that insular neurons may be responsible for the subjective experience of pain. As a result, they would also be responsible for adding unpleasant feelings to painful experiences. The insular cortex urges other parts of the brain to perform their own functions during the process of learning about danger.

All of this has led researchers to believe that the function of the insular cortex plays a very important role in all the functions involved in the connections between different parts of the brain. This finding is also consistent with the knowledge that any injury to the insular cortex can lead to a variety of psychological problems.

In conclusion, we would like to state that studies that elucidate neuronal connections and different elasticity mechanisms for encoding brain pain may serve as a basis for a variety of important psychiatric theories in the future. People with mental disorders such as traumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorder could benefit significantly in the future from such advances in science.