Interoception

Background: The 'layering method', a clinical reasoning model for Western acupuncture, is a theoretical framework based on pain and tissue mechanisms. This focus on the mechanics of disability is a limitation of the original model. From a holistic viewpoint, the psychological status of an individual should be considered in clinical reasoning models. Objectives: The first objective was to summarize the original layering model. The second was to determine mechanisms underlying integration of sensations and emotions in the human brain and their effect on the body via output transfer systems of the autonomic, immune, and endocrine systems. The third objective was to determine whether acupuncture can modulate similar regions in the brain and to formulate appropriate clinical reasoning questions. Major findings: Interoceptive sensory stimuli and emotions are integrated in limbic and frontal brain regions to allow emotional responses to feedback from the body and provide the individual with a 'sense of self'. A strong connection with brainstem nuclei modulating output transfer systems allows emotions to regulate homeostatic balance. Acupuncture may be interpreted as an interoceptive stimulus by the brain. Neuroscience research has shown that acupuncture can modulate neural activity in similar brain regions to those processing emotional responses to sensory inputs. Conclusions: Acupuncture may influence emotional responses and their impact on the neurobiology of the human body. A biopsychosocial clinical reasoning model based on the modulation of emotional processing in the brain is proposed. This suggests that acupuncture may be used as an adjuvant to other therapies in disorders with a biopsychosocial component.

The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) is a self-report instrument to assess relevant dimensions of bodily awareness. The aim of this study was to offer a Japanese version and adaptation of the MAIA (MAIA-J), as well as to analyse its psychometric properties in a Japanese population. The English MAIA was systematically forward and backward translated by bilingual Japanese experts; additionally, content validity aspects regarding language were discussed by a panel of experts. The MAIA-J was administered to 390 Japanese young adults (age: 20.3 +/-2.2), 67.7% women and 32.2% men. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) reduced the questionnaire from 32 to items and from 8 to factors (Noticing, Not-Distracting, Attention Regulation, Emotional Awareness, Body Listening, and Trusting). The Japanese version showed appropriate indicators of construct validity and reliability, with Cronbach's α between 0.67 and 0.87 for the 6 MAIA-J dimensions. The findings demonstrate that MAIA-J has a slightly different factor structure compared to the original English MAIA. Results are discussed with respect to cultural differences. However, the study results support acceptable reliability of the MAIA-J in the Japanese sample, warranting its use for future studies with Japanese populations. behavioral tests (e.g. heartbeat perception, gastric perception, respiratory perception) (e.g.

After reviewing the available data regarding the various effects of manipulating (e.g. lesions, chemical or electrical stimulation) the hippocampal formation, Jarrard concluded that this structure likely played a role in motivated behaviors, specifically in general behavioral activation and incentive motivation. Since that time there have been technical advances in lesion techniques and conceptual advances in theories of motivation and learning. Here, we present more recent data that demonstrates the effects of hippocampal lesions on general activity, the utilization of interoceptive state cues, ingestive behaviors, and appetitive responding. We critically evaluate several theories of hippocampal function that have been proposed to explain these data, including the hippocampus as an inhibitor of general activation, as a processor of energy state signals and as a mediator of reward valuation. Finally, we propose that these findings may also be accounted for based on a role for the hippocampus in the learned inhibition of appetitive behaviors. We conclude that, while the specific mechanism of hippocampal involvement may not yet be determined, it is clear that this structure is involved in food-related behaviors and we caution researchers to consider this as a possible confound in studies of learning and memory processes.

Journal writing is a popular intervention to bring into therapeutic work with groups and individual clients, particularly within applications of expressive arts therapies. Yet often participants become resistant when encouraged to explore more challenging episodes of their lives through writing, even though studies have shown that excavating these events is precisely what benefits health and wellbeing through expressive writing applications. This literature review provides a deeper understanding of the role of interoception and mindful, contemplative movement on unlocking the stories our bodies hold. An arts-based, autoethnographic practice informed the selection of literature. This paper investigates the theoretical connections to similar therapeutic orientations such as narrative therapy; applications such as writing the trauma narrative; how interoceptive awareness aids in accessing implicit memory. Findings in the literature also identify how integrating interoceptive training can aid in emotional regulation and in titrating and tolerating discomfort when engaged in evidence-based expressive writing protocols toward healing outcomes. A review of existing applications within expressive arts therapies reveals many natural entry points for bringing the language of the body – sensory awareness – into cognition to support the expressive writing process.

Recently, Garfinkel and Critchley (2013) proposed to distinguish between three facets of interoception: interoceptive sensibility, interoceptive accuracy, and interoceptive awareness. This pilot study investigated how these facets interrelate to each other and whether interoceptive awareness is related to the metacognitive awareness of memory performance. A sample of 24 healthy students completed a heartbeat perception task (HPT) and a memory task. Judgments of confidence were requested for each task. Participants filled in questionnaires assessing interoceptive sensibility, depression, anxiety, and socio-demographic characteristics. The three facets of interoception were found to be uncorrelated and interoceptive awareness was not related to metacognitive awareness of memory performance. Whereas memory performance was significantly related to metamemory awareness, interoceptive accuracy (HPT) and interoceptive awareness were not correlated. Results suggest that future research on interoception should assess all facets of interoception in order to capture the multifaceted quality of the construct. Research on interoception has become a recognized field of interest in psychology during the past decades. In the broadest sense, the term interoception refers to the sense of the physiological condition of the body (Craig, 2003) and has been investigated in various contexts, such as clinical psychology (Dunn et al.

Abstract Mindfulness is associated with better self-control, but the mechanisms of this association have only seen limited examination. We propose that two components of mindfulnessinteroceptive awareness and nonjudgmental acceptance-improve self-control by amplifying and drawing attention to the conflict-related affect that instantiates it. Far from attenuating momentary negative emotions, mindfulness can sensitize individuals to incipient affective changes in the experiential field, including the transient affect that accompanies goal conflicts. In the present chapter, we describe how affect mobilizes selfcontrol, how mindfulness can ameliorate the affect-control relationship, and some future directions this work generates for both experimental and clinical researchers.

Interoception is the body-to-brain axis of sensations that originates from the internal body and visceral organs. It plays a unique role in ensuring homeostasis, allowing human beings to experience and perceive the state of their bodies at any one time.

However, interoception is rapidly gaining interest amongst those studying the human mind. It is believed that beyond homeostasis interoception is fundamental in understanding human emotion and motivation and their impact upon behavior. That link between interoception and self-awareness is supported by a growing body of experimental findings.

The Interoceptive Mind: From Homeostasis to Awareness offers a state-of-the-art overview of, and insights into, the role of interoception for mental life, awareness, subjectivity, affect, and cognition. Structured across three parts, this multidisciplinary volume highlights the role that interoceptive signals, and our awareness of them, play in our mental life. It considers deficits in interoceptive processing and awareness in various mental health conditions. But it also considers the equally important role of interoception for well-being, approaching interoception from both a theoretical and a philosophical perspective.

Written by leading experts in their fields, all chapters within this volume share a common concern for what it means to experience oneself, for the crucial role of emotions, and for issues of health and wellbeing. Each of those concerns is discussed on the joint basis of our bodily existence and interoception. The research presented here will undoubtedly accelerate the much-anticipated coming of age of interoceptive research in psychology, cognitive neurosciences and philosophy, making this vital reading for anyone working in those fields.

The dominant mode of societal operation in today’s world, in its pursuit of the good life through economic growth and consumption, is destroying the planet’s ecosystems and accelerating towards an inhospitable climate regime, with mixed results for even short-term human well-being. This pathological mode of societal operation is based in discredited worldviews. However, important aspects of a coherent, updated worldview have not been articulated and thus have not been integrated into the efforts of scholarship to steer society away from collapse and toward sustainable, desirable futures. In particular, there is a need for an explanatory framework that makes sense of seemingly incompatible perspectives on the human being (e.g., between the natural and social sciences) and on human well-being (WB; e.g., between hedonic and other perspectives)—and that situates human WB in the context of planetary WB. This thesis lays the foundation of such a framework. Previous researchers taking a complex-systems approach have argued convincingly that self-regulatory capacity is the underlying basis of WB, providing a key premise for this thesis. I synthesize evolutionary, neurobiological, psychological, and social lines of investigation into a coherent, broadly consistent understanding of the development and dynamics of self-regulatory capacity, focusing on various interdependent levels of regulation (e.g., physiological, psychological, and social) and showing many of their impacts on WB. With the help of predictive processing models of perception, this thesis explores how self-regulatory dynamics are affected by the qualities of three key relationships fundamental to the human situation: relationship with one’s body (embodiment), relationship with other humans (sociality), and relationship with the more-than-human world (terrestriality).

This work suggests a number of conclusions. First, all three of these relational contexts (embodiment, sociality, terrestriality) are fundamental to both our existence and our well-being. It follows that any coherent worldview must account for these dynamic interrelations. Second, human well-being may be proximally defined by the capacity for integrated, non-defensive functioning, which is a developmental achievement dependent on supportive conditions. Third, beyond material sufficiency, the most important factors for WB seem to be attentional, collective, and mutualistic, rather than consumptive, individual, and rival.

This thesis, by synthesizing a variety of scientific disciplines into a coherent framework for an embedded, complex-systems understanding of whole-person health and well-being, is the first part of a research agenda toward understanding—and achieving—whole-systems well-being, from person to planet.

This presentation introduces and explains interoception and the role it plays in enabling both children and adults to connect to themselves, and to others. It explores how teaching interoception can be done explicitly, and how research has demonstrated that this teaching can support the development of socio-emotional skills, and improve student engagement and learning in schools and pre-schools. Using examples from secondary school and adults, the role of interoception activities in preventing meltdowns and managing emotional expressions will be discussed.

The aim of this project was to investigate the nature and possible significance of first-person kinaesthetic vocal sensations observed in association with musical listening. Hearing and voice are known to be closely linked but the mechanisms that underlie their close relationship are not yet understood. The presence of kinaesthetic vocal sensations challenges accounts of auditory processing that are divorced from peripheral vocal input and, instead, suggests the hypothesis that auditory and vocal processing mechanisms rely on shared peripheral substrates in addition to their increasingly recognized shared (brain-based) central substrates. To investigate this hypothesis, I used MRI and developed a measurement protocol (informed by established methods in cephalometry) that would allow me to relate vocal structures to their direct and indirect bony attachments to the craniofacial skeleton, cervical spine and sternum. After establishing the method’s validity in subjects at rest, I acquired midsagittal MR images (under conditions where articulatory and postural input was negligible) while subjects (1) hummed and (2) listened (in a focused way) to low and high notes at each end of their range. Geometric and shape analysis of craniocaudal, craniocervical and anteroposterior variables revealed significant differences between low- and high-note conditions and widespread correlations between variables for both humming and listening investigations. An unexpected association between pitch change and changes of cervical alignment was also found. These results were complemented and extended by using the same MR images to build an active shape model (ASM). In addition to showing how vocal structures move together, ASM showed goal-related vocal activity to consist of one or more independent modes of variation. Together, the observations, experimental results, and evidence from diverse historical and contemporary sources, support the hypothesis that mechanisms underlying auditory and vocal processing rely on shared central and peripheral substrates. Wide-ranging implications arising from this hypothesis are also discussed.

The domain of Interaction Design (IxD) strives for rich interactions yet continues to work with both a shallow definition of gestalt experience and a meager palette of experiential variables from which to pull. The presence of the body in human experience is noted, but poorly understood or utilized when making design moves. Through a turning of attention to the visceral variables of experience, this thesis presents the first comprehensive definition and taxonomy of Soma Literacy to reveal an expanded palette of variables to the design fields. Interventions into worlds through such a tactile and personal lens challenge many entrenched beliefs and reframes the very nature of interaction and experience. This new framing and set of priorities applicable to designing for engagement of the felt-sense provides both a timely provocation, and a much-needed practical aid to designers and educators.
Influenced by interaction aesthetics, somaesthetics, pragmatic philosophy, and the theoretical and pedagogical principles of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze’s Eurhythmics, I present the sentient body (soma) as the core of experiential perception. I introduce the soma tier of experience and discuss to what extents Design can offer interventions to reveal, nudge, magnify, or diminish experiential gestalts through the manipulatible variables of the soma tier, thus offering interaction design not just a renewed and expanded palette, but also a clarification of the fundamental palette of human interaction factors. The human experience is analog. It is the actual, visceral, flesh and bone, breathing, beating body that is the only translator of experience that we possess. It is only through this lens that we might come to know and thereby design meaningful interactions.
This thesis re-presents the feeling body as the single fundamental constant for IxD, a playground for all participation, engagement, and felt-experience. Soma Literacy is introduced as an encompassing and organizing field of study that frames this renewed attention and offers a path to analyze, interpret, reveal, and make meaning through the bodied content present in experience.

Humans are unique in their ability to think about themselves and carry a more or less clear notion of who they are in their mind. Here we review recent evidence suggesting that the birth, maintenance, and loss of the abstract concept of ‘self’ is deeply tied to interoception, the sense of internal physiological signals. Interoception influences multiple facets of the self-concept, cutting across its material, social, moral, and agentive components. Overall, we argue that interoception contributes to the stability of the self-concept over time, unifying its layers and constraining the degree to which it is susceptible to external influences. Hence, the core features of the self-concept are those that correlate more with inner bodily states. We discuss the implications that this may have for theories of embodied cognition as well as for the understanding of psychiatric disorders in which the concept of self appears fragmented or loose. Finally, we formulate some empirical predictions ...

Here we present a theory of human trauma and chronic stress, based on the practice of Somatic Experiencing(®) (SE), a form of trauma therapy that emphasizes guiding the client's attention to interoceptive, kinesthetic, and proprioceptive experience. SE™ claims that this style of inner attention, in addition to the use of kinesthetic and interoceptive imagery, can lead to the resolution of symptoms resulting from chronic and traumatic stress. This is accomplished through the completion of thwarted, biologically based, self-protective and defensive responses, and the discharge and regulation of excess autonomic arousal. We present this theory through a composite case study of SE treatment; based on this example, we offer a possible neurophysiological rationale for the mechanisms involved, including a theory of trauma and chronic stress as a functional dysregulation of the complex dynamical system formed by the subcortical autonomic, limbic, motor and arousal systems, which we term...

The processing, representation, and perception of bodily signals (interoception) plays an important role for human behavior. Theories of embodied cognition hold that higher cognitive processes operate on perceptual symbols and that concept use involves reactivations of the sensory-motor states that occur during experience with the world. Similarly, activation of interoceptive representations and meta-representations of bodily signals supporting interoceptive awareness are profoundly associated with emotional experience and cognitive functions. This article gives an overview over present findings and models on interoception and mechanisms of embodiment and highlights its relevance for disorders that are suggested to represent a translation deficit of bodily states into subjective feelings and self-awareness.

Still in draft form and under construction, An Integral Theory of Cultural Evolution gathers evidence across the social, behavioral and biological sciences in search of Consilience, or the underlying unity of scientific knowledge. This study examines analytics from across these disciplines to examine the common thread binding Language, Interaction, Thought, and Emotion.

Affect Control Theory is presented as a validated model of social behavior underlying Social Interactionism and Self-making processes.  ACT's mathematized analytic models social action based upon semantic description of behavior in which EPA dimensions of affect are used to compute resultant social action and emotions.  ACT is posited as an exemplar analytic theory of the Social Sciences that could be used to validate an Integral Theory of the Social Affect System.

This study concludes by first offering a unifying Color Theory of Emotion which uses the analogy of color vision to the pattern that emerges from the Modes of Autonomic Control and Evaluative Space Model that integrates Emotion, Motivation and Attention/Perception psychological primitives.  This theory is then integrated with Power Status Theory of Emotion & Affect Spectrum Theory, through AST's mapping to Grid-Group Theory via Relational Model Theory.  This study then uses the Moral Motivations Model to integrate several competing analytcs in Moral Psychology, including Moral Foundations Theory, Schwartz Value Theory, and Morality as Cooperation, along with RMT.  PSToE & AST are then integrated with Moral Motivations and Relational Models over the Non-Zero-Sum Game Symmetrical Game space, ultimately describing hierarchic ontological integration of evaluation processes, revealing the role of emotions in decision-making under uncertainty that have evolved under multi-level selection.

The Development and subsequent have temporarily been removed and continue to be under construction.

В данной статье рассматривается концептуальная специфика смешанной метафоры и раскрывается ее потенциал для описания сферы интероцептивных (внутрителесных) ощущений. Анализируются истоки смешанной метафоры, проясняются механизмы ее формирования, описываются основные типы. Смешанная метафора рассматривается как эмерджентная структура, наиболее адекватно отражающая качественные и количественные характеристики актуального интероцептивного опыта. Дескриптивная сила смешанной метафоры видится в ее способности отразить  одну из наиболее сущностных характеристик интероцептивного ощущения – лабильность.
The present paper considers the conceptual specificity of Mixed Metaphor and reveals its potential for describing the sphere of interoceptive (inner-body) sensations. The paper researches into the sources of Mixed Metaphor, elucidates the mechanisms of its formation and describes its main types. Mixed Metaphor is described as an emergent structure which most fully reflects qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the actual interoceptive experience. The descriptive power of Mixed Metaphor is seen in its ability to reflect the lability of interoceptive sensation, which is one of the most essential characteristics.

This review focuses on Meditative Movement (MM) and its effects on anxiety, depression, and other affective states. MM is a term identifying forms of exercise that use movement in conjunction with meditative attention to body sensations, including proprioception, interoception, and kinesthesis. MM includes the traditional Chinese methods of Qigong (Chi Kung) andTaijiquan (Tai Chi), some forms ofYoga, and other Asian practices, as well as Western Somatic practices; however this review focuses primarily on Qigong and Taijiquan. We clarify the differences between MM and conventional exercise, present descriptions of several of the key methodologies of MM, and suggest how research into these practices may be approached in a systematic way. We also present evidence for possible mechanisms of the effects of MM on affective states, including the roles of posture, rhythm, coherent breathing, and the involvement of specific cortical and subcortical structures. We survey research outcomes summarized in reviews published since 2007. Results suggest that MM may be at least as effective as conventional exercise or other interventions in ameliorating anxiety and depression; however, study quality is generally poor and there are many confounding factors. This makes it difficult to draw definitive conclusions at this time. We suggest, however, that more research is warranted, and we offer specific suggestions for ensuring high-quality and productive future studies.

Cognitive systems research has predominantly been guided by the historical distinction between emotion and cognition, and has focused its efforts on modelling the “cognitive” aspects of behaviour. While this initially meant modelling only the control system of cognitive creatures, with the advent of “embodied” cognitive science this expanded to also modelling the interactions between the control system and the external environment. What did not seem to change with this embodiment revolution, however, was the attitude towards affect and emotion in cognitive science. This paper argues that cognitive systems research is now beginning to integrate these aspects of natural cognitive systems into cognitive science proper, not in virtue of traditional “embodied cognitive science”, which focuses predominantly on the body’s gross morphology, but rather in virtue of research into the interoceptive, organismic basis of natural cognitive systems.

According to the triadic neurocognitive model of addiction to drugs (e.g., cocaine) and non-drugs (e.g., gambling), weakened "willpower" associated with these behaviors is the product of an abnormal functioning in one or more of three key neural and cognitive systems: (1) an amygdala-striatum dependent system mediating automatic, habitual, and salient behaviors; (2) a prefrontal cortex dependent system important for self-regulation and forecasting the future consequences of a behavior; and (3) an insula dependent system for the reception of interoceptive signals and their translation into feeling states (such as urge and craving), which in turn plays a strong influential role in decision-making and impulse control processes related to uncertainty, risk, and reward. The described three-systems account for poor decision-making (i.e., prioritizing short-term consequences of a decisional option) and stimulus-driven actions, thus leading to a more elevated risk for relapse. Finally, this article elaborates on the need for "personalized" clinical model-based interventions targeting interactions between implicit processes, interoceptive signaling, and supervisory function aimed at helping individuals become less governed by immediate situations and automatic pre-potent responses, and more influenced by systems involved in the pursuit of future valued goals.

Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder (DD) typically manifests as a disruption of body self-awareness. Interoception 2 defined as the cognitive processing of body signals2 has been extensively considered as a key processing for body selfawareness. In consequence, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are systematic differences in interoception between a patient with DD and controls that might explain the disembodiment symptoms suffered in this disease. To assess interoception, we utilized a heartbeat detection task and measures of functional connectivity derived from fMRI networks in interoceptive/exteroceptivo/mind-wandering states. Additionally, we evaluated empathic abilities to test the association between interoception and emotional experience. The results showed patient's impaired performance in the heartbeat detection task when compared to controls. Furthermore, regarding functional connectivity, we found a lower global brain connectivity of the patient relative to controls only in the interoceptive state. He also presented a particular pattern of impairments in affective empathy. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental research that assesses the relationship between interoception and DD combining behavioral and neurobiological measures. Our results suggest that altered neural mechanisms and cognitive processes regarding body signaling might be engaged in DD phenomenology. Moreover, our study contributes experimental data to the comprehension of brain-body interactions and the emergence of self-awareness and emotional feelings.

Interoception provides a link for the affective and cognitive mechanisms of embodiment. fMRI studies suggest that brain areas known to mediate selective attention, are also relevant for interoceptive awareness (IA). Yet the relationship between attention, embodiment and interoception is poorly understood. This study attempts to understand this relationship by considering whether IA is possible when attention is compromised. Using two versions of an IA task, the standard mental tracking task (MMT) and a modified version of the same task, the IA of 20 healthy participants (9 female, 11 male) was measured. A significant difference in mean IA was shown between the tasks with the modified mental tracking task (MMTT) showing greater sensitivity. These findings suggest that IA is possible even when attention is compromised which supports somatic theories such as the somatic marker hypothesis. Most importantly this implies that IA may be a good measure of somatic awareness and may be useful as a measure in body psychotherapy research and clinical practice.

Significant comorbidity has been demonstrated between feeding and eating disorders and autism. Atypical interoception (perception of bodily signals) may, at least in part, be responsible for this association, as it has been implicated in the aetiology of both conditions. However, significant methodological limitations are impeding progress in this area. This paper provides a brief overview of how interoception has been linked to autism and feeding and eating disorders in both adolescent and adult populations before identifying several issues with current measures of interoception. We suggest that methodological issues may be contributing to the inconsistency in the empirical literature, and provide suggestions for future research.

En hommage posthume à Jean Starobinski (1920-2019) à l’occasion du centenaire de sa naissance, nous esquissons ici sa pensée sur les « raisons du corps » en la reliant à certains champs de recherche contemporains. Prolongeant le «tournant somatique» des années 1980, les «tournants émotionnel» et «intéroceptif» du XXIe siècle prétendent réintégrer le corps dans l’histoire, dans les sciences humaines et dans les sciences neurocognitives. Les interroger à la lumière de la critique starobinskienne fait ressortir leurs limites. Inversement, lire celle-ci au regard de ces «tournants» met en relief sa manière unique d’articuler l’histoire et la phénoménologie ainsi que son intérêt constant pour l’expérience corporelle de soi et pour la conscience du corps propre, dont les «raisons» se métamorphosent en une expression littéraire qui fera corps avec elle.

Interoception can be broadly defined as the sense of signals originating within the body. As such, interoception is critical for our sense of embodiment, motivation, and wellbeing. And yet, despite its importance, interoception remains poorly understood within modern science. This paper reviews interdisciplinary perspectives on interoception, with the goal of presenting a unified perspective from diverse fields such as neuroscience, clinical practice, and contemplative studies. It is hoped that this integrative effort will advance our understanding of how interoception determines well-being, and identify the central challenges to such understanding. To this end, we introduce an expanded taxonomy of interoceptive processes, arguing that many of these processes can be understood through an emerging predictive coding model for mind-body integration. The model, which describes the tension between expected and felt body sensation, parallels contemplative theories, and implicates interoception in a variety of affective and psychosomatic disorders. We conclude that maladaptive construal of bodily sensations may lie at the heart of many contemporary maladies, and that contemplative practices may attenuate these interpretative biases, restoring a person's sense of presence and agency in the world.

Emotion regulation and associated autonomic activation develop throughout childhood and adolescence under the influence of the family environment. Specifically, physiological indicators of autonomic nervous system activity such as interoceptive sensitivity and vagally mediated heart rate variability (HRV) can inform on emotion regulation. Although the effect of parental emotion socialization on emotion regulation appears to be influenced by auto-nomic processes, research on physiological regulation and the influence of parental factors remains scarce. This study investigated the relationship between self-reported habitual emotion regulation strategies and HRV at rest as well as interoceptive sensitivity in forty-six youngsters (27 female; age: M = 13.00, SD = 2.13). Secondly, the association between these autonomic correlates and parental psychopathology was also studied. Whereas better interoceptive sensitivity was related to reduced maladaptive emotion regulation, specifically rumination, high HRV was related to more use of external emotion regulation strategies (i.e., support seeking). In addition, increased HRV and decreased interoceptive sensitivity were associated with maternal internalizing and there was evidence for a possible mediation effect of HRV in the relationship between maternal internalizing and child external emotion regulation. This study elucidates the link between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and underlying physiological regulation in adolescents but also indicates a putative influence of maternal internalizing symptoms on emotion regulation in their offspring.

Zusammenfassung. Die zentralnervçse Verarbeitung afferenter Signale aus dem Kçrperinneren ist nicht nur bei der basalen Kontrolle homçostatischer Prozesse im Kçrper zur Regulation fundamentaler Adaptationsprozesse des Organismus relevant, sondern spielt zusammen mit der bewussten Perzeptionsgenauigkeit dieser kçrperlichen Signale ("interozeptive Sensitivität") auch bei der Regulation komplexer kognitiver, emotionaler und behavioraler Prozesse eine nicht zu unterschätzende Rolle. Diese Übersichtsarbeit stellt theoretische Grundlagen zur interozeptiven Sensitivität dar und gibt einen Überblick über aktuelle empirische Forschungsergebnisse.

Background
Chronic pain remains an unresolved issue in clinical practice despite the extensive research investigating its behavioural and neural correlates. Evidence demonstrates that chronic pain results in altered representation of the body in the brain. Arguably, this impacts on the perception of the self and its associated processes; namely, interoceptive awareness and body awareness. However, there is minimal research investigating the links between interoceptive awareness, body awareness and chronic pain.

Objectives and Method
This case-control study investigated the relationship between chronic pain and interoceptive awareness; and the links between interoceptive awareness and body awareness. A sample of 59 participants comprising of 22 patients with chronic pain and 37 individuals without a history of chronic pain were assessed using a heartbeat monitoring task (HBMT) and the Body Awareness Questionnaire (BAQ). The HBMT was used to measure interoceptive awareness; and the BAQ to measure body awareness. Data from variables regarded as potential confounders, were also collected.

Results
The findings did not reveal a statistical significant difference in interoceptive awareness and body awareness across the groups. Moreover, activities likely to enhance proprioception or mindfulness based practice did not influence interoceptive awareness. Notwithstanding this, a positive trend was identified between body awareness and mindfulness based activities.

Conclusions
Several limitations of this study suggest scope for further research investigating putative changes in interoceptive awareness in the presence of chronic pain and the effect of osteopathic treatment on the perception of the self. The role of mindfulness based activities in the management of chronic pain is also discussed.

Recent studies in cognitive neuroscience have suggested that the integration of information about the internal bodily state and the external environment is crucial for the experience of emotion. Extensive overlap between the neural mechanisms underlying the subjective emotion and those involved in interoception (perception of that which is arising from inside the body) has been identified. However, the mechanisms of interaction between the neural substrates of interoception and emotional experience remain unclear. We examined the common and distinct features of the neural activity underlying evaluation of emotional and bodily state using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The right anterior insular cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) were identified as commonly activated areas. As both of these areas are considered critical for interoceptive awareness, these results suggest that attending to the bodily state underlies awareness of one's emotional state. Uniquely activated areas involved in the evaluation of emotional state included the temporal pole, posterior and anterior cingulate cortex, medial frontal gyrus, and inferior frontal gyrus. Also the precuneus was functionally associated with activity of the right anterior insular cortex and VMPFC when evaluating emotional state. Our findings indicate that activation in these areas and the precuneus are functionally associated for accessing interoceptive information and underpinning subjective experience of the emotional state. Thus, awareness of one's own emotional state appears to involve the integration of interoceptive information with an interpretation of the current situation. Hum Brain Mapp 00:000-000,

This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

The conceptual article by Schulz and colleagues (2020) gives an overview of psychophysiological mechanisms of interoception and reviews relevant findings showing that a dysregulation of the brain-body communication represents an important mechanism for the generation of physical symptoms in stress-related disorders.  https://doi.org/10.1027/2512-8442/a000063

Nusser and colleagues (2020) present results of an original study on age-related effects of interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive sensibility, as assessed by cardiac IAcc and by scales assessing general and specific IS, in 146 individuals aged between 19 and 81 years. https://doi.org/10.1027/2512-8442/a000060

Mai-Lippold and colleagues (2020) examine the effects of energy drinks on cardiac IAcc, IS, and IE, including cortical processing represented by the heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP), in an original study of healthy participants varying in anxiety sensitivity levels. https://doi.org/10.1027/2512-8442/a000061

The conceptual article by Herbert (Herbert, 2020) provides an overview of research findings and concepts of interoception and its relevance for adaptive and maladaptive eating behavior, obesity, and eating disorders.
https://doi.org/10.1027/2512-8442/a000062

This article is based on a keynote lecture from the European Association of Body Psychotherapy, Berlin, 2018. I review research and clinical evidence for three distinct states of embodied self-awareness (restorative, modulated, and dysregulated), each with distinct qualities of felt experience, thought process, autonomic nervous system activation, and social engagement. I suggest that while most clinical practices aim to move clients from dysregulated to modulated (more regulated) states, considerable therapeutic benefi t is derived by promoting restorative embodied self-awareness in both therapists and clients.

Keywords: embodied self-awareness, interoception, restoration, regulation, modulation, dysregulation.

Background: Body image distortion is a central symptom of Anorexia Nervosa (AN). Even if corporeal awareness is multisensory majority of AN studies mainly investigated visual misperception. We systematically reviewed AN studies that have investigated different nonvisual sensory inputs using an integrative multisensory approach to body perception. We also discussed the findings in the light of AN neuroimaging evidence.

Body consciousness research is a multidisciplinary field including various conceptualizations of its subject. Usually research frames are based on comparisons between bodily experts, such as dancers, or psychiatric groups with bodily aberrations (e.g. eating disorders) and control participants. Methods of body consciousness research include behavioural and self-report measures as well as brain imaging. Some methods have been used to study bodily experts, but not psychiatric groups, and vice versa.

In this study, dancers, amateur and professional athletes, and control participants were studied using four behavioural methods (aperture task, endpoint matching, rubber hand illusion, posture copying) and two self-report measures PBCS (Private Body Consciousness Scale of the Body Consciousness Questionnaire) and BAQ (Body Awareness Questionnaire). Because many methods of studying body consciousness focus on the use of hands, a new method called posture copying, involving the whole body, was developed in this study.

Dancers succeeded better than controls in the aperture task, and better than athletes and controls in the posture copying task. In the posture copying task, group differences were present in copying all other body parts but hands. Both dancers and athletes scored higher in the BAQ than controls. There was an almost significant difference between athletes and controls in the endpoint matching task. No group differences were found in the rubber hand illusion or PBCS.

The results were considered as proof that dancing has a special connection with body consciousness, but that some aspects of body consciousness are similar in dancers and athletes. Methods measuring the same quality of body consciousness produced contradictory evidence, which questions their validity. This study offers useful knowledge for the future of body consciousness research, with regards to choice of participants, methodology, and study design, as well as treatment plans of clinical groups with disorders in their body consciousness (e.g. eating disorders).

The inadequacy of a categorial approach to mental health diagnosis is now well-recognised, with many authors, diagnostic manuals and funding bodies advocating a dimensional, trans-diagnostic approach to mental health research. Variance in interoception, the ability to perceive one's internal bodily state, is reported across diagnostic boundaries, and is associated with atypical functioning across symptom categories. Drawing on behavioural and neuroscientific evidence, we outline current research on the contribution of interoception to numerous cognitive and affective abilities (in both typical and clinical populations), and describe the interoceptive atypicalities seen in a range of psychiatric conditions. We discuss the role that interoception may play in the development and maintenance of psychopathology, as well as the ways in which interoception may differ across clinical presentations. A number of important areas for further research on the role of interoception in psychopathology are highlighted.

Sex differences in the prevalence and presentation of mental illnesses are well- documented. Women are more likely to experience common mental health disorders (e.g. anxiety and depression), and when they experience these conditions they often present differently to men (e.g., women are more likely to report somatic complaints). Periods of physical and hormonal change (e.g., adolescence, pregnancy and menopause) are particular risk periods for the development of mental illness in women. In this paper, we advance the proposal that interoception (the perception of the body’s internal state) is one mechanism that might explain sex differences in vulnerability to mental illness. We argue that known sex differences in interoception, whereby women, compared to men, report heightened attention to internal signals coupled with worse interoceptive accuracy, may result from the increased amount of physical and hormonal change women experience across development. Given links between interoception and mental health, we propose that sex differences in interoception may partly explain sex differences in the prevalence and presentation of certain mental illnesses. Further scrutiny of this proposal may aid our understanding of sex differences in mental illness with implications for assessment, early intervention and the development of novel treatment approaches.

Interoceptive awareness is the conscious perception or active noticing of one’s internal body signals, such as muscle tension, bladder state, heart rate, etc. This mixed methods thesis examined whether teaching students to actively notice their internal body signals would increase self-management and self-regulation within the school context, the consequence of which would be a reduction in behaviours that were affecting teaching and learning. In addition, this thesis examined if there was any impact on engagement in learning and education as students developed their interoceptive awareness. Data were drawn from a one-year pilot with one school, and then a one-year trial with 11 schools in regional South Australia. The findings demonstrated a reduction in reported behavioural consequences across the schools, with qualitative findings detailing the impacts of learning interoceptive techniques for individuals and their own perceptions of their behaviours. This thesis utilised Siegel’s (2010) hand model of the brain, in combination with a novel way of presenting the two branches of the autonomic nervous system, as a potential explanation for the findings that teaching interoceptive awareness increased engagement in learning and education, self-management, and self-regulation in the school context. The resultant model that was developed by the researcher is a clear visual that can support education staff to understand and respond to challenging behaviour more effectively and proactively across both high school and primary school contexts.