This paper reviews the foundation for a role of the human anterior insular cortex (AIC) in
emotional awareness, defined as the conscious experience of emotions. We first introduce …

The anterior insular cortex (AIC) is implicated in a wide range of conditions and behaviours,
from bowel distension and orgasm, to cigarette craving and maternal love, to decision …

The human brain has often been viewed as outstanding among mammalian brains: the most
cognitively able, the largest-than-expected from body size, endowed with an overdeveloped …

The prevailing orthodoxy in brain science is that since physical laws govern our physical
brains, physical laws therefore govern our behaviour and even our conscious selves. Free …

The human insular cortex forms a distinct, but entirely hidden lobe, situated in the depth of
the Sylvian fissure. Here, we first review the recent literature on the connectivity and the …

Long perceived as a primitive and poorly differentiated brain structure, the primate insular
cortex recently emerged as a highly evolved, organized and richly connected cortical hub …

The prefrontal cortex is critical to many cognitive abilities that are considered particularly
human, and forms a large part of a neural system crucial for normal socio-emotional and …

Functional neuroimaging investigations in the fields of social neuroscience and
neuroeconomics indicate that the anterior insular cortex (AI) is consistently involved in …

Empathy allows individuals to share the affective states of others, predict others' actions, and
stimulate prosocial behavior. Whilst the proximate mechanisms of empathy, modulated in …

Abstract The von Economo neurons (VENs) are large bipolar neurons located in
frontoinsular (FI) and anterior cingulate cortex in great apes and humans, but not other …