If you have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), you may also have a smaller amount of white matter in your brain’s insula, which is an area of your brain that prompts sensations in your body’s gastrointestinal tract. This is according to a recent study, which was unable to confirm causation between the presence of IBS and this absence of insula white matter, as the latter may be the result of IBS or a lifetime of sensory input. As this pattern is studied further, it may lead to more information regarding how IBS develops and interacts with a person’s entire body.