Interoception & Related Concepts – Lecture Vocabulary

Key vocabulary from the lecture covering definitions, neural pathways, measurement methods, and behavioural links of interoception.

Interoception

The perception, processing, and potential awareness of sensations that originate inside the body’s internal organs (e.g., heartbeats, respiration, hunger).

Homeostasis

The tendency of an organism to maintain a stable internal equilibrium through physiological regulation.

Allostasis

Predictive regulation that prepares the body for future needs before imbalances arise (e.g., feeling thirsty when starting to eat).

Afferent Signalling

Bottom-up neural transmission of physiological signals from the body to the brain.

Pre-conscious Impact

Influence of interoceptive signals on cognition or behaviour that occurs without conscious awareness.

Interoceptive Accuracy

Objective ability to correctly detect internal bodily signals, typically measured with behavioural tasks.

Interoceptive Sensibility

Subjective beliefs, attitudes, or self-reported tendencies regarding one’s own interoceptive experiences.

Interoceptive Awareness (Meta-cognitive Awareness)

Insight into one’s own interoceptive accuracy—how well a person knows how good they are at sensing internal signals.

Execution & Attribution

Top-down processes that interpret the cause of interoceptive sensations and guide behavioural responses.

Heartbeat Counting Task

A behavioural measure where participants silently count their heartbeats between start/stop tones to index interoceptive accuracy.

Heartbeat Discrimination Task

Task in which participants decide whether auditory tones are synchronous or asynchronous with their heartbeats.

Interoceptive Manipulation (Pharmacological)

Method that alters bodily arousal (e.g., adrenaline infusion) so participants track internal changes, providing an accuracy measure.

Respiratory Resistance Task

Interoceptive measure where airflow resistance is subtly varied and participants detect breathing changes.

CT Afferents (C-Tactile fibres)

Unmyelinated low-threshold mechanoreceptors in hairy skin that respond optimally to slow, gentle stroking and convey affective touch.

Affective Touch

Slow, pleasant tactile stimulation (≈1–10 cm/s) that activates CT afferents and carries social–emotional value.

Spino-thalamic Lamina I Pathway

Ascending neural tract that transmits homeostatically relevant bodily and affective touch signals to the insula.

Insula

Cortical hub for higher-order interoceptive processing and integration with emotion and social information.

Brainstem

Low-level structure that receives first-order interoceptive inputs and mediates autonomic reflexes.

Somatosensory Cortex

Region processing bodily sensation; co-activated during many interoceptive tasks due to exteroceptive overlap.

Proprioception

Sense of limb position and movement in space (distinct from interoception).

Vestibular Sense

System that detects head movement and balance (distinct from interoception).

Thermoception

Perception of temperature; core temperature is clearly interoceptive, skin temperature may be debated.

Baroreceptors

Mechanoreceptors in blood vessels that detect arterial stretch caused by pressure changes (source of cardiac interoceptive signals).

Alexithymia

Difficulty identifying and describing one’s own emotions; often linked to poor interoceptive skills.

Rubber Hand Illusion

Multisensory illusion where synchronous visuo-tactile stimulation causes ownership over a fake hand; modulated by interoceptive ability.

Cardio-visual Illusion

Body-ownership illusion created when a virtual hand pulses in sync with the observer’s heartbeats.

Cyberball Task

Experimental game where ball-toss exclusion induces feelings of social ostracism; used to test effects of affective touch.

Theory of Mind (ToM)

Ability to infer other people’s mental states; interoceptive accuracy correlates specifically with affective ToM.

Affective ToM

Inference of others’ emotions; linked to interoceptive accuracy.

Cognitive ToM

Inference of others’ beliefs or intentions; not consistently related to interoception.

Heartbeat-Evoked Potential (HEP)

EEG index of cortical processing of each heartbeat, modulated by attention and emotional states.

Mechanoreceptors

Sensory receptors that detect mechanical forces such as stretch or pressure (e.g., in arteries, lungs, stomach).

Chemoreceptors

Receptors that respond to chemical changes (e.g., blood CO₂/O₂ levels) and contribute to interoceptive signalling.

Meta-interoceptive Insight

Degree of correspondence between a person’s confidence and their actual interoceptive performance.

CT-Optimal Velocity

Stroking speed (≈2–3 cm/s) that maximally activates C-tactile afferents and feels most pleasant.