Lobe · one in each half of the brain
Insula
Also called Insular cortex, Island of Reil, Insular lobe
The hidden island of the brain: sensing your heartbeat, gut feelings, taste and disgust.
The insula is a hidden lobe tucked deep inside the side groove of the brain, completely covered by the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes. It is the brain's main listener to your inner body, tracking your heartbeat, breathing, hunger and much more. It holds the main taste area of the cortex, and it helps create feelings like disgust, craving and empathy.
Where it is
Deep inside the side groove of each half of the brain, roughly behind your temple. To see it, you have to gently pull apart the frontal and temporal lobes, which cover it like lids.
What it does
Sensing your inner body
It tracks signals from inside you, like heartbeat, breathing, stomach fullness and temperature. This inner sense is called interoception.
Taste
It holds the main taste area of the cortex, where you become aware of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and savory.
Disgust
It helps create the feeling of disgust: when surgeons stimulate it, people can report queasy, disgust-like sensations.
How you feel
Its front part blends body signals with thoughts and emotions, helping create how you feel in the moment.
Spotting what matters
With the front of the cingulate, it helps notice important events and switch the brain into action mode.
Think of it as an inner dashboard: it collects readings from your heart, lungs, stomach and skin, and turns them into feelings like hunger, nervousness or disgust.
Works with
- Caudal anterior cingulate cortexTogether they form the salience network, which picks out what deserves your attention right now.
- AmygdalaIt shares emotional signals with the amygdala, linking body sensations to fear and other feelings.
- Vagus nerve (X)Much of what it learns about your heart, lungs and gut starts as signals traveling up the vagus nerve.
- Ventral posterior nucleus of the thalamusThis part of the thalamus relays taste and body signals up to it.
- Orbitofrontal cortexIt sends taste information to the orbitofrontal cortex, which blends it with smell into flavor.
- HypothalamusIt works with the hypothalamus on body needs such as hunger, thirst and temperature.
When it goes wrong
Cravings
The front of the insula is linked to intense cravings, such as the desire for a cigarette.
Stroke
The insula lies along a major artery, so it is often affected by strokes. Effects can include changes in taste, altered emotional feelings and speech problems.
Anxiety
Some research links anxiety to an overly sensitive insula that turns normal body signals, like a racing heart, into feelings of danger.
For learning only, not medical advice. If you have a health concern, talk to a doctor.
Surprising facts
- It is sometimes called the fifth lobe of the brain, yet you cannot see it at all from the outside.
- Parts of the insula, together with the front of the cingulate, are key players in empathy, the ability to share in other people's feelings.
- In one study, people who were better at sensing the timing of their own heartbeats had more active and larger front insula regions.
Where the name comes from
Latin for "island", because it sits like an island hidden inside the folds of the brain. It is also called the Island of Reil after Johann Christian Reil (1759-1813), a German anatomist and doctor.
Learn it in a lesson
- The hidden cortexInsula, cingulate and the inner surfaces. A short guided lesson in 3D.
Quick quiz
2 questions. Your answers are saved and come back in your daily review.
Which of these is a job of the insula?
Show the answer
Sensing your inner body. It tracks signals from inside you, like heartbeat, breathing, stomach fullness and temperature. This inner sense is called interoception.
Sensing your inner body. It tracks signals from inside you, like heartbeat, breathing, stomach fullness and temperature. This inner sense is called interoception.
Which part fits this description? "Like an inner dashboard: it collects readings from your heart, lungs, stomach and skin, and turns them into feelings like hunger, nervousness or disgust."
Show the answer
Insula. It is the insula. The hidden island of the brain: sensing your heartbeat, gut feelings, taste and disgust.
Insula. It is the insula. The hidden island of the brain: sensing your heartbeat, gut feelings, taste and disgust.
These parts now come back in your daily review, just before you would forget them.
Practice it and its neighbors in 3DSources
- Insular cortex, Radiopaedia
- 13.3 What Is the Contribution of Brain Structures in Emotional States?, OpenStax, Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience
- Interoception, emotion and brain: new insights link internal physiology to social behaviour, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (Oxford Academic)
Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
Explore the insula in 3D
Turn it around, zoom inside and see how it connects to the rest of the brain, then test yourself with quick quizzes.
Open it in 3D