The bilateral Left Cerebrum.Sub-lobar.Insula.Gray Matter corresponds to the gray matter of the insular cortex, a deeply situated cortical region buried within the lateral sulcus and covered by the frontal, parietal, and temporal opercula. The insula is involved in multimodal integration and plays key roles in interoception (perception of internal bodily states), gustatory processing, pain perception, autonomic regulation, and emotional awareness, as well as aspects of risk, decision-making, and social-emotional processing. Its gray matter contains distinct anterior and posterior subdivisions, with the anterior insula more associated with complex cognitive and affective functions and the posterior insula more related to primary sensory and viscerosensory integration. Functionally, it is heavily interconnected with limbic, frontal, and sensory regions, contributing to salience detection and coordination between large-scale brain networks. Insular cortex
Genetic associations with bilateral insular gray matter, as defined in Talairach 1 mm sub-lobar labels, largely derive from imaging–genetics and GWAS of cortical thickness, surface area, and volume, as well as from disorder-focused studies. Large-scale consortia such as ENIGMA have shown that common variants in genes related to neurodevelopment (e.g., HMGA2, TBR1, DACT1, MIR-9–related loci), neuronal signaling, and synaptic function influence insular morphology, with insular thickness and surface area showing partly distinct genetic architectures. Polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and autism spectrum disorder have been linked to altered insular volume or cortical thickness, and specific risk loci (e.g., in CACNA1C, ZNF804A, and other synaptic/ion-channel genes) have been associated with structural or functional changes involving the insula in case–control imaging–genetics studies. GWAS of smoking, alcohol use, and other substance-use traits report insula-related structural and functional variation associated with addiction-related loci (e.g., CHRNA5–CHRNA3–CHRNB4), consistent with the insula’s role in interoception and craving. Moreover, genetic variants associated with pain sensitivity, anxiety-related traits, and autonomic regulation have been tied to insular structure or activation, underscoring this region as a convergent hub where polygenic influences on affect, salience processing, and bodily awareness manifest in gray-matter differences.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 592
Hemisphere: bilateral
Atlas: Talairach labels 1mm
Full Quality Version: Download MP4
Full Quality Version: Download MP4
Wali Sidiqyar*, Gaurav Rudravaram*, Elyssa M. McMaster, Trent M. Schwartz, Adam M. Saunders, Kurt G. Schilling, Bennett A. Landman "Introducing SPINS: A Shared Public Visualization Library of Neuroanatomical Structures." Medical Imaging with Deep Learning- short paper
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