The role of the dorsal anterior insula in sexual risk: Evidence from an erotic Go/NoGo task and real‐world risk‐taking

The insula plays an important role in response inhibition. Most relevant here, it has been proposed that the dorsal anterior insular cortex (dAIC) plays a central role in a salience network that is responsible for switching between the default mode network and the executive control network. However, the insula's role in sexually motivated response inhibition has not yet been studied. In this study, eighty‐five 18‐ to 30‐year‐old sexually active men who have sex with men (MSM) performed an erotic Go/NoGo task while in an MRI scanner. Participants' real‐world sexual risk‐taking (frequency of condomless anal intercourse over the past 90 days) was then correlated with their neural activity during the task. We found greater activity in bilateral anterior insular cortex (both dorsal and ventral) on contrasts with stronger motivational information (attractive naked male pictures versus pictures of clothed, middle‐aged females) and on contrasts requiring greater response inhibition (NoGo versus Go). We also found that activity in the right dAIC was negatively correlated with participants' real‐world sexual risk‐taking. Our results confirmed the involvement of the insular cortex in motivated response inhibition. Especially, the decreased right dAIC activity may reduce the likelihood that the executive control network will come online when individuals are faced with situations requiring inhibitory control and thus lead them to make more risky choices.

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