Insular Cortex

Insular Cortex and Interoception: The Brain Region That Bridges Body Signals to Emotional Intelligence The insular cortex is the brain’s mapping organ for the body — the cortical region that converts visceral signals into conscious feeling. The posterior insula receives raw afferent input from heart, lungs, viscera, and pain pathways. The anterior insula re-represents that input with cognitive and emotional context, producing the felt experience the brain reads as emotion. Interoception is that re-representation. ...

Why Do I Push People Away? The Neuroscience of Withdrawal You push people away because the oxytocin and dopamine circuits that pull humans toward connection have been blunted, not because something is wrong with how you feel. Chronic loneliness rewires the trust circuits in the insula, downregulates oxytocin signaling, and dampens the VTA’s social-craving response. ...