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AriannahM's picture

Brain and Behavior Through the Insula

Submitted by AriannahM on Sun, 02/11/2007 - 4:48pm.

Last week in the Science Times, I read a very interesting article about relating to brain and behavior. The article, by Sandra Blakeslee, focused on the relationship between the insula and addictive behavior, in particular, smoking. According to some researchers, if a procedure was developed that could simply change the insula without destroying it, addictive behavior could be “cured”.

The insula is located in the lateral sulcus region of the brain. It is thought to be responsible for a wide variety of things including, but not limited to, emotion, cravings, pain, empathy, morality and emotional response to music. This is clearly a very important section of the brain that cannot be manipulated without careful research.

The researchers argue that problems like drug addiction and eating disorders would be solved if a procedure was developed. This leads me to question the link between brain and behavior once again. If simply tweaking a part of the brain can stop all addictive behaviors, how much “control” do we really have over our actions? Do we control our brains or do our brains control us?

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