“…The posterior insula is a region of particular interest to the present research because of its implication in auditory and interoceptive processing by both structural and functional neuroimaging research (Bamiou, Musiek, & Luxon 2003;Remedios, Logothetis, & Kayser 2009;Flynn 1999) and due to the previously demonstrated effect of mindfulness training on the activation and functional connectivity of this region (Kilpatrick et al 2011;Farb et al 2012;Kirk, Gu, Harvey, Fonagy, & Montague 2014). Changes in cortical thickness of the posterior insula may lead to changes in auditory processing, and the posterior insula may interact with other regions implicated in auditory processing, such as the left middle/superior temporal gyrus (MTG/STG) and right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) in a network involved in the detection of novel auditory information (Petrides & Pandya 2002;Plakke & Romanski 2014;Rauschecker & Scott 2009;Schönwiesner et al 2007;Buse & Roessner 2016;Kiehl, Laurens, Duty, Forster, & Liddle 2001). Various forms of meditation are associated with activity in the insula as well as somatomotor cortex, the primary cortical site of tactile information processing (Fox et al 2016).…”