The concept was first proposed in the early 20th century by a British neuroscientist named Charles Sherrington, but was largely ignored by researchers until about a decade ago.
At any time, your body’s internal organs send signals to your brain . Most of the time you won’t notice it, but sometimes they intervene: for example, when you are hungry or when you need to go to the toilet. Our ability to benefit These hidden signals are called interoception, sometimes called the sixth sense.
In one of the podcast episodes The weekly conversation we spoke with a cognitive neuroscientist and an expert in interoception about how further research into this connection between our minds and bodies could lead to advances in physical and mental health care.
Interoception is defined as the unconscious or conscious sensation of internal bodily sensations . The concept was first proposed in the early 20th century by a British neuroscientist named Charles Sherrington , but it was largely ignored by researchers until about ten years ago. One of those leading the charge is Sarah Garfinkel, professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London in the United Kingdom.
“When I started, I searched on Google and there were no results, or very few. Nobody talked about it. “It’s amazing to me how much things have changed in these ten years, and I’m excited to see that we are entering an era of neuroscience in which we are looking at an integrated system that integrates the body and the brain.” said Sarah Garfinkel.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/copesa/LXRI4MJ2CFF4ZMIX7H6IJ7KDXM.jpg)
Most people probably aren’t even aware of interoception until they experience a problem. Garfinkel joked that it wouldn’t be very effective if we were constantly distracted by our heartbeat or had a conscious view of our kidneys working all the time. “Our brain has developed a tendency to perceive and be aware of the outside world” he explains, this is why our exteroceptive senses such as sight, hearing and touch dominate.
Garfinkel says that Interoception is important for accurately understanding what is happening in your body , especially for people with conditions such as autism, who often struggle to know when to eat. But she believes that our ability to read signals from our organs can also shape our emotional experience.
“I consider feelings as changes in bodily states and our perceptions of them. “So I’m trying to understand how different clinical conditions might have differences either in the body signals themselves or in the sensation of those changes and how that might be reflected in different emotional profiles,” says Garfinkel..
She gives the example of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suggesting it could be increased bodily activity, such as an elevated heart rate, interact with the brain to increase fear in people with PTSD.
To learn more about Garfinkel’s research and how you develop ways to train people’s interoception to help them manage anxiety listen to the full podcast episode The weekly conversation .
* Gemma Ware editor and host of the weekly podcast The Conversation, The Conversation
** Sarah Garfinkel Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL
Source: Latercera
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
