A volumetric comparison of insular regions in anthropoid primates based on cytoarchitectonics

The insula is a region of the brain that functions in social cognition. Different regions of the insula uniquely contribute to human social cognition, including empathy and social awareness. We examine volumes of four subdivisions of insula to determine if differences in size contribute to these cognitive specializations. We find that the human insula is largely the same size as that of other primates, but there may be a difference in the volume of this structure between the right and left sides of the brain. This difference may contribute to human social complexity, but more work should be done to clarify the significance of these results.