Heterogeneity of human insular cortex: Five principles of functional organization across multiple cognitive domains

Abstract

The insular cortex serves as a critical hub for human cognition, but how its anatomically distinct subregions coordinate diverse cognitive, emotional, and social functions remains unclear. Using the Human Connectome Projects multi-task fMRI dataset (N=524), we investigated how insular subregions dynamically engage during seven different cognitive tasks spanning executive function, social cognition, emotion, language, and motor control. Our findings reveal five key principles of human insular organization. First, insular subregions maintain distinct functional signatures that enable reliable differentiation based on activation and connectivity patterns across cognitive domains. Second, these subregions dynamically reconfigure their network interactions in response to specific task demands while preserving their core functional architecture. Third, clear functional specialization exists along the insulas dorsal-ventral axis: the dorsal anterior insula selectively responds to cognitive control demands through interactions with frontoparietal networks, while the ventral anterior insula preferentially processes emotional and social information via connections with limbic and default mode networks. Fourth, we observed counterintuitive connectivity patterns during demanding cognitive tasks, with the dorsal anterior insula decreasing connectivity to frontoparietal networks while increasing connectivity to default mode networks - suggesting a complex information routing mechanism rather than simple co-activation of task-relevant networks. Fifth, while a basic tripartite model captures core functional distinctions, finer-grained parcellations revealed additional cognitive domain-specific advantages that are obscured by simpler parcellation approaches. Our results illuminate how the insulas organization supports its diverse functional roles through selective engagement of distinct neural networks, providing a new framework for understanding both normal cognitive function and clinical disorders involving insular dysfunction.