Word: insula
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Statements like "2 + 2 = 5" and "Torture is good" caused an area called the anterior insula to light up. True statements like "2 + 2 = 4" activated the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. The ventromedial is thought to play a role in judgment, memory, fear and, according to one study, soft-drink preferences. The anterior insula helps process fear, disgust and reactions to bad smells...
...recovery because cured suggests that resuming drinking or smoking or shooting up is a safe possibility--whose downside could be devastating. But there are hints that a cure might not in principle be impossible. A recent study showed that tobacco smokers who suffered a stroke that damaged the insula (a region of the brain involved in emotional, gut-instinct perceptions) no longer felt a desire for nicotine...
That's exciting, but because the insula is so critical to other brain functions--perceiving danger, anticipating threats--damaging this area isn't something you would ever want to do intentionally. With so many of the brain's systems entangled with one another, it could prove impossible to adjust just one without throwing the others into imbalance...
...each item on display. As they viewed products they preferred, Knutson saw activity in the nucleus accumbens, a region of the brain involved in anticipating pleasant outcomes. If, on the other hand, the subjects thought the price of these items was too high, there was increased activity in the insula-- an area involved in anticipating pain. "The idea is that if you can look into people's brains right before they make certain decisions, you can get a handle on these two feelings and do a better job of predicting what they are about to do," Knutson says. "I believe...
...decade ago or thereabouts, Perth-based photojournalist David Dare Parker explored some of the ancient rock carvings on the Burrup Peninsula, near Dampier. He's keen to see them again. The pen-insula alone holds some 10,000 known engravings, but the visitors' center is closed for renovations, there are no signposts, and the intrepid Parker, 47, searches his creaky memory in vain. Low, brown boulders and rust-colored piles of super-hard granophyre give no clue to the location of the artistic riches hidden in the scrub beyond the sealed road from Karratha...