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background info on the anterior insular cortex in the context of Misophonia

review via (Hansen et al., 2026)

• the anterior insular cortex is implicated in a number of Misophonia relevant functions, including disgust, subjective pain evaluation, goal directed attentional control, and interoception (Hansen et al., 2026)
• Early fMRI studies consistently show that individuals with misophonia exhibit heightened activation to trigger stimuli in the anterior insula, often alongside increased activation in related regions such as the anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, compared to neurotypical controls. (Kumar et al., 2017), (Schröder et al., 2019), (Grossini et al., 2022)
• Functional connectivity studies indicate that individuals with misophonia show stronger insula coupling with limbic, motor, and somatosensory regions; however, these findings are based on small samples. Because atypical anterior insula connectivity is also observed in anxiety, depression, and autism, cross-diagnostic neuroimaging is needed to clarify shared versus
• disorder-specific mechanisms.(Hansen et al., 2026) (page 2)