Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ

by Giulia Enders

The brain is an organ of the body. So, if the insula creates an image of the body, that image must also include the on-board computer in our head. It has some interesting areas, such as those responsible for social empathy, morality, and logic. The social areas of the brain might give rise to negative feelings when we argue with our partner; logic regions might induce despair when we try to solve a difficult puzzle. In order for the insula to create a reasonable image of our self, it probably also takes in perceptions of our environment and experiences from the past. So, when we are cold, we don’t just feel the low temperature, we are able to contextualize the feeling and think such thoughts as “This is weird. I’m cold, but I’m in a well-heated room indoors. Maybe I’m coming down with something?” Or alternatively, “Okay, maybe I shouldn’t be parading around naked in the conservatory in winter.” In this way, humans are able to react to the stimulus of feeling cold in a much more complex way than other animals. The more information we connect, the cleverer the movements we can make.