Sit in a comfortable and safe position and close your eyes. Now, feel your heart beat in your chest. Without moving your hands, can you feel every movement and count its beat? Do you have trouble detecting anything? This test can be used to determine your interoception. It measures your brain's perception of the state of your body, using receptors located on your internal organs.
Although interoception is less well-known than the other outwardly facing senses, such as sight, hearing and taste, it can have huge consequences for your health. Scientists have demonstrated that interoceptive signals are a key factor in our ability to regulate emotions and thus our susceptibility to depression and anxiety.
This area is one of the most rapidly growing in psychology and neuroscience. There are many academic conferences dedicated to it and numerous papers being published every month. Interoceptive research is experiencing an explosion, according to Prof Manos Tsakiris of Royal Holloway University of London.
These findings offer new ways to tune in and change your perception of the body's interoceptive signals. This could help with a variety of mental health issues. Listening to our hearts is the only way we can take better care and manage our minds.
The source of emotion
Let's start with some definitions. Interoception refers to all signals coming from your internal organs. This includes your heart, lungs, stomach, bladder, kidneys and other vital systems. Tsakiris says that there is a constant communication between the brain, the viscera and the brain.
The majority of this processing takes place under conscious awareness. You won't be aware of the brain-body automatic feedback that keeps your blood pressure in check, or the signals that stabilize your blood sugar levels. Many of these sensations, such as tension in the muscles or the clenching and beating of the heart, should be accessible to the conscious mind at least partially. Your wellbeing will depend on how you interpret and read these feelings.
Manos Tsakiris says there is a constant dialogue between brain and viscera. Photograph by The NOMIS Foundation/YouTube
Interoception is being recognized by clinicians and researchers as a key mechanism for mental and physical well-being. Understanding our bodies' signals allows us to understand and regulate emotions and physical states. Dr Helen Weng, University of California San Francisco, said that interoception is becoming a more widely accepted concept.
This idea is a result of the pioneering work of Professor Antonio Damasio, University of Southern California in 1990s. His theory was that emotions begin with non-conscious changes to bodily states called somatic markers. For example, when you see an angry dog, your muscles tighten or your heart starts racing. This physiological reaction happens before you even realize that the emotion is there. It is only when your brain senses the change in the body's internal state through interoception that we experience it and allow it to influence our behavior. The brain and body are constantly in communication, so the emotions of joy, sadness, or excitement would not exist without them.
Our intuition is based on our interoception, which is why we feel something is right or wrong.
Damasio provided evidence by describing the decisions made by patients with brain damage in areas like the ventromedial cortex. This disrupted the formation of unconscious bodily reactions. They didn't have any physiological reaction to seeing a photograph of a car accident, and they also did not feel any emotion. Although they felt shocked or disgusted by the incident, they did not actually feel them. They also reported that their impaired emotional awareness and interoception caused them to struggle with simple decisions, such as choosing a meal on a dinner menu. Our intuition is what makes things feel right or wrong, and this suggests that interoception is behind our senses of intuition.
It is now known that even people with no brain damage, many others struggle to tune into their interoceptive signals. This can be measured using various exercises. For example, you can ask participants to count their heartbeats over a period of time and then compare it with the actual reading. You can also play recordings of a steady beat and ask participants to tell you if it is in tune with their heart. Interoceptive awareness can also be measured using questionnaires asking people to rate how often they see their bodies' signals.
Individuals respond differently to different situations. This is likely to do with their ability to recognize and control their emotions. This makes sense. If you can detect your bodily signals more accurately, you will be better able to interpret your feelings and make more informed decisions about how to respond.
These processes could play an important part in many mental disorders. For example, a large number of depression patients have poorer interoceptive awareness when completing heartbeat detection tasks. This could explain why they feel numb or lukewarm.
Anxiety sufferers, on the other hand, report being more attentive to their interoceptive messages but not always correctly. For example, they may mistakenly interpret a small increase in heart rate as something much larger than it is. This can cause them to panic and catastrophise.
Professor Hugo Critchley from Brighton and Sussex Medical School explains that poor interoceptive awareness may also lead to a sense of dissociation and depersonalization, which can be early signs of psychosis and a precursor to their delusions. He says that interoception is essential for us to create our basic sense of self. However, it appears to be lacking in these patients.
New therapies
Although therapies that address these issues are still in the infancy stages, there are some promising signs. Critchley worked recently with 121 autistic adults, a group that is at high risk for anxiety disorders. To see if better interoception could help reduce stress levels. Half of the participants received detailed feedback about their performance and were then given multiple attempts to detect heartbeats over six sessions. The control group, on the other hand, received voice recognition training that was meant to train them in speech recognition. This task could prove useful in their daily lives but did not target their interoceptive awareness.
The team reported their findings in the Lancet earlier in the month. 31% of the participants in the interoceptive training program had completely recovered from their anxiety disorder. Only 16% of the control group had. Critchley said that it improved people's ability to recognize and de-catastrophise physiological experiences. Although his research has not been published, he said that similar results were seen in students from other backgrounds.
Scientists are investigating whether mindfulness and breathing techniques can be used to enhance interoceptive skills. Photograph: Anna Frank/Getty Images
Others have also been studying the possibility of mindfulness being used to increase interoceptive awareness. There are many types of mindfulness. Some may be more focused on the mental experience, while others might focus more on the appearance of thoughts. Professor Cynthia Price from the University of Washington, Seattle, has developed a program that encourages participants to pay attention to the internal sensations in their sequential body parts.
Participants were individuals with substance abuse problems. This condition can be accompanied by poor emotional regulation that can make it more difficult to avoid relapse. Additionally, many people report feeling disembodiment, which could contribute to their problems.
The therapy reduces depression symptoms and cravings. It also significantly increases abstinence in a year-long study compared to standard treatments. She hopes that the practice will be of benefit to many others. These skills can be useful for everyone, regardless of their health condition.
You are more likely to feel anxious if you're deconditioned by a lack in exercise. Prof Hugo Critchley
It is possible that new technologies will be developed in the future to make this easier. Tsakiris has examined a non-invasive device that clips onto the ear and delivers mild electric current through the skin to the vagus nerve. This acts as a link between the gut and the heart. Tsakiris discovered that gentle stimulation improved people's accuracy in detecting heartbeats. He says it seemed to increase brain-body communication. It opens up bandwidth.
He emphasizes that these are preliminary findings. However, if more research proves its benefits, it could be used in mindfulness exercises to train interoception.
Inner strength
Most importantly, interoception can allow us to better understand why certain exercises are so beneficial for our mental health. Regular exercise may alter the nature of signals your brain receives. Critchley says that if you aren't getting enough exercise, you may experience anxiety-like symptoms. Critchley says that anxiety symptoms can be triggered by a lack of exercise or physical challenges. Your body will become more resilient to changes in the environment and this will help you feel better.
Exercise should also teach you how to pay more attention to the signals. This will help you be more precise in interpreting and reading the changes you see. Tsakiris cautions that not all athletes possess high emotions regulation capabilities. They do have an advantage because they are better attuned to their interoceptive system.
Strength training is known to reduce anxiety. This may be because it alters the brain's interoceptive signals. Photograph by Thomas Barwick/Getty Images
Strength training is proving to be a great way to reduce anxiety. This could be due to the appearance and ego boost that comes with being toned. However, the effects are still there even if you do not control for changes in muscle size. The training may alter the interoceptive signals that are being received from the muscles. Engaging with our muscles makes us feel stronger and more capable of dealing with threats. This also boosts our self-esteem and mental resilience.
Caroline Williams, science writer and author of Move!, says that interoceptive feedback can reveal something about your ability to achieve goals in the world. (Profile 2021) explores all the benefits of physical exercise for the mind. Your body will feel more capable of handling stress after strength training.
It seems that interoception is one of the most important senses we have. You can be more healthy in your body and mind by paying attention to what it is sending you.
