Scientists recently identified a region in the brain that plays a key role in smoking cessation: the insular cortex.
What Does The Insular Cortex Do?
The insular cortex is located between the temporal and the parietal lobes of the brain and is associated with a vast array of cognitive functions, from high-level human consciousness processes to those of primal self-regulation and bodily homeostasis.
On the one hand, the insular cortex is associated with basic motor control like swallowing, hand-eye coordination, and speech articulation. It is also related to heartbeat, blood pressure, the immune system, the digestive system, and the intake of information from each of the five senses.
On the other hand, the insular cortex is especially linked to emotional processing. The region has been highlighted for its role in self-awareness, agency, and bodily ownership as well as for its relationship to empathy and the consciousness of interpersonal experiences. It is also where orgasms, social norm violations, and the sensation of pain are evaluated in the brain.
This insular cortex seems to straddle an interesting divide between the brain functions that we traditionally consider animalistic, like the regulation of basic physical systems in the body, and those that we consider more human, like language and the experience of emotions. It’s where we process music, for example, as well as laughter and crying.
It’s possible that the region serves as a bridge between sensory intakes and the conscious experience of them. This would make a lot of sense given its recent link to the experience of addiction, a problem that scientists have long understood to straddle a similar divide between the physical and the psychological.
The Insular Cortex and Addiction
The recent studies were published in the journals Addiction and Addictive Behaviors and were led by Amir Abdolahi while he was a doctoral student at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Abdolahi now works with Philips Research North America.
The research involved 156 patients at three different hospitals, all of whom had suffered a stroke and who identified themselves as active smokers. The patients were divided into two groups: those who were recovering from a stroke in the insular cortex, and those who had suffered a stroke in another part of the brain.
The researchers measured the patients’ cravings for a cigarette during their hospital recovery stays, throughout which they were prohibited from smoking by default because of the hospital environment. They also observed whether the patients resumed smoking after recovering from the stroke.
Far and away, the patients whose strokes occurred in the insular cortex experienced fewer and less severe withdrawal symptoms like anger, insomnia, anxiety, and cravings. They were also almost twice as likely to quit smoking after the stroke; seventy percent of insular cortex patients quit, compared to thirty-seven percent in group two.
News for Addiction Treatment Options
This study, which offers new insight into the nature of addictive behavior, could improve treatment options for people suffering from addiction. Most drugs and current solutions aimed at eliminating nicotine dependence target not the insular cortex, but rather the brain’s reward centers, where dopamine activity occurs. These treatments have a relatively high rate of relapse–around seventy percent.
The new findings seem to suggest that targeting the insular cortex might hit closer to the root of addictive behaviors. If the link proves strong enough, the research could improve treatment options for addictions of all kinds.
