Damage to the Right Insula Disrupts the Perception of Affective Touch

Specific, peripheral C-tactile afferents contribute to the perception of tactile pleasure, but the brain areas involved in their processing remain debated. We report the first human lesion study on the perception of C-tactile touch (N = 59), revealing that posterior and anterior right insula lesions reduce tactile, contralateral and ipsilateral pleasantness sensitivity, respectively. These findings are consistent with a posterior-to-anterior pattern of integration of interoceptive information in the frontoinsular junction.