As mentioned earlier, the insula helps process sensory signals, but it also plays a key role in higher-level emotions. It is this region from which the spindle cells originate. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans have revealed that these cells are particularly active when a person is dealing with emotions such as love, anger, sadness, and sexual desire. Situations that strongly activate them include when a subject looks at her partner or hears her child crying.
