Psychology Facts

▼ Interoception ▼

》Interoception is the ability to be aware of internal sensations in the body, including heart rate, respiration, hunger, fullness, temperature, pain, and emotion sensations.

》Much of the processing of these signals takes place below conscious awareness: you won't be aware of the automatic feedback between brain and body that helps to keep your blood pressure level, for instance, or the signals that help to stabilise your blood sugar levels. But many of these sensations – such as tension in your muscles, the clenching of your stomach, or the beating of your heart – should be available to the conscious mind, at least some of the time.

》Many people consider interoception to be an additional sense that is critical to the way we understand how we feel on a moment-to-moment basis.

》You can think of someone with "good" interoception as the person who feels themselves getting hungry and gets a snack, or who feels their heart racing and takes some deep breaths. A person with low interoception, conversely, might go all day without eating. But evidence suggests that having high or low interoception in one domain doesn't mean you're good or poor in interoception overall. Someone might be good at recognizing hunger sensations but poor at recognizing emotions, for example.

》The earliest studies of interoception and mental health showed that being too aware of internal sensations, such as heartbeat, can contribute to anxiety disorders. There's also a robust literature linking interoceptive dysfunction to eating disorders. Not being aware of hunger sensations can facilitate restrictive eating, and if you're not aware of fullness sensations, that could contribute to binge eating.

》Research suggests that individual differences in interoception may also affect behaviour that we might not expect, such as emotional experience and decision-making.

》Interoception may also help with decision-making, especially when we are unsure what is the right decision is. One study found that people who were good at feeling their hearts beating did better on a task in which the aim was to win money and avoid losing money. Why could this be? One idea is that the brain remembers which sensations happened (like a change in heartbeat) when a decision had a good outcome (like winning money) and when it had a bad outcome (like losing money). This helps us learn which decisions are best, even though these sensations are usually outside our conscious awareness.

》Individual differences in interoception might mean that some people use interoceptive signals to help with decision-making, whereas other people use information from outside the body, like the environment or other people, instead.

》How do we know if we are happy, sad, angry, or disgusted? When we experience an emotion, it is usually accompanied by a change in the body, like heart rate or breathing. However, your heart beating fast could mean many things—you might be scared, excited, or have just run up the stairs! Most psychologists would agree that we act like detectives and gather information from the world around us to work out which emotion we are experiencing.

》Even though you use other clues too, the ability to sense internal signals is an important part of your emotional experience. Research supports this idea: people who find it difficult to sense internal signals often struggle to work out which emotion they are experiencing and have difficulties recognising emotions in other people. In contrast, people who find it easy to sense internal signals may experience emotions more intensely

》Research suggests that people who are anxious pay more attention to internal signals. Because they pay extra attention to their heartbeat, something like a class presentation might be scarier for anxious people. Anxious people may also notice their hearts beating quickly in situations that others would not normally consider scary or worrying, like going to a party with friends. People without anxiety might think their hearts are beating fast because they are excited about the party. But, for somebody anxious, a racing heartbeat might make them think there is something to be afraid of.

》In contrast, people who feel depressed may struggle with interoceptive accuracy. For example, people with depression often eat more or less than usual, maybe because they find it hard to tell whether they are hungry or full. Sometimes depressed people stop enjoying things they usually enjoy, which may be because they struggle to feel internal signals associated with positive emotions.

》Trouble with interoception isn't as well known as other sensory processing issues. Experts are still learning what techniques can help people who struggle with it. Some experts think that mindfulness activities like meditation can help those affected be more aware of interoceptive sensations in their bodies.