Me, Myself and My Insula: An Oasis in the Forefront of Self-Consciousness

Abstract

The insula is a multiconnected brain region that centralizes a wide range of information, from the most internal bodily states, such as interoception, to high-order processes, such as knowledge about oneself. Therefore, the insula would be a core region involved in the self networks. Over the past decades, the question of the self has been extensively explored, highlighting differences in the descriptions of the various components but also similarities in the global structure of the self. Indeed, most of the researchers consider that the self comprises a phenomenological part and a conceptual part, in the present moment or extending over time. However, the anatomical substrates of the self, and more specifically the link between the insula and the self, remain unclear. We conducted a narrative review to better understand the relationship between the insula and the self and how anatomical and functional damages to the insular cortex can impact the self in various conditions. Our work revealed that the insula is involved in the most primitive levels of the present self and could consequently impact the self extended in time, namely autobiographical memory. Across different pathologies, we propose that insular damage could engender a global collapse of the self.

Keywords: autobiographical memory; insula; interoception; self.

Figure 1

Functions and structural connectivity of the human insula. The blue section represents the sensorimotor function, the dark green section represents the gustatory function, the light green section represents the olfactory function, the yellow section represents the cognitive part, the red section represents the socio-emotional part and the purple section represents the complex integrated functions, stemming from the interaction of several of these functions. ACC, anterior cingulate cortex; DLPFC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; MPFC, medial prefrontal cortex; OPFC, orbitofrontal cortex. Adapted from “Icon Pack—Neuroscience”, by BioRender.com (2020). Retrieved from https://app.biorender.com/biorender-templates, accessed on 9 April 2023.

Figure 2

Synthesis of the main models of the self and autobiographical memory, with correspondences between the principal components. The orange frames depict Prebble’s model (2013), the pink frames depict Damasio’s model (2003), the purple frames depict Gallagher’s models (2000; 2013), the blue frames depict Conway and Pleydell-Pierce’s models (2000, 2005), the green frames depict Neisser’s model (1988) and the yellow frames depict James’s model (1890).