Convergent and selective representations of pain, appetitive processes, aversive processes, and cognitive control in the insula

Abstract

Regions that respond to multiple types of information ("convergence zones") are crucial for the brain to generate coherent experiences and behaviors. The insular cortex, known for its functional diversity, has been hypothesized to be a key convergence hub, yet empirical evidence identifying how and where convergence occurs is incomplete. To address this gap, we analyzed functional convergence across four key task domains--somatic pain, non-somatic appetitive processes, aversive processes, and cognitive control--in a large-scale Bayesian mega-analysis of fMRI data (N=540, systematically sampled from 36 studies). Bayes Factor analyses identified both convergent zones responding to multiple domains and selective zones responding to single domains. Results revealed a hierarchical convergence architecture, with a multi-domain convergence zone in bilateral dorsal anterior insula surrounded by zones showing progressively increasing convergence. Functional decoding and coactivation analyses further support the insulas role as a convergence hub, while cytoarchitectonic and neurotransmitter profiling characterizes the potential neuroanatomical underpinnings subserving convergent and domain-selective function. Overall, our results demonstrate a structured functional topography in the insula that bridges specialized and convergent processing, providing a potential neural basis for how diverse information streams combine into unified subjective experiences.