Brain's insular cortex processes pain and drives learning from pain

Acute pain, e.g. hitting your leg against a sharp object, causes an abrupt, unpleasant feeling. In this way, we learn from painful experiences to avoid future harmful situations. This is called "threat learning" and helps animals and humans to survive. But which part of the brain actually warns other parts of the brain of painful events so that threat learning can occur?

We've known for a while that a brain area called amygdala is important for threat learning. But now, scientists from the lab of Ralf Schneggenburger at EPFL have discovered that the insular cortex sends such "warnings." The insular cortex, folded deep within the lateral sulcus of the brain, is known to code for feelings about our own body. Moreover, neurons in the insular cortex connect to neurons in the amygdala, but the function of this brain connection was previously little studied.

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