Is the insula the "how much" intensity coder?

The perception of all sensations includes some sort of magnitude estimate used to calibrate behavior. However, it is not known whether unique intensity coding mechanisms exist for specific modalities or whether a common, centralized magnitude estimator operates for all sensations. Here, we discuss findings regarding pain intensity coding and the role of the insula in pain in light of the recent article by Baliki and colleagues that proposes the insula as a multimodal magnitude estimator.