Interoception: listening to one’s own body

Beyond the 5 senses, interoception does its work in a discreet way.

When we speak of the senses, we generally think of the five senses dedicated to the perception of the external world, i.e. sight, hearing, smell, taste dedicated to the perception of the external world, i.e. sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Thanks to them we perceive images, sounds, smells and pheromones, tastes, temperature and physical contact.

However, we often miss an important detail. We can also perceive our inner selves. We notice headaches, nausea, internal itching, heart rate or muscle aches. And this is attributable to another sense: interoception. another sense: interoception.. In this article we are going to make a brief analysis of this concept.

What is interoception?

We understand by interoception to be the perception of the internal state of the organism, providing information on the functioning or dysfunction of the viscera and internal organs.. It is a sense that helps us to maintain homeostasis or body balance. Although often underestimated, interoception is vital for survival: thanks to it we can perceive that we are injured, that something is not going well in our organism, that we need a greater supply of oxygen, that we need to drink water or eat or that we are sexually aroused.

Although it is sometimes separated from interoception, the perception of pain or nociception would also be included in the ability to detect changes in body balance.

And not only that: although interoception is generally thought of as purely physiological, the truth is that it is largely linked to the experience of emotions. For example, it is not easy to determine if we feel disgust if the emotion of disgust is not accompanied by gastric sensations. And this is important when it comes to being able to self-manage our emotions and behavior depending on the situation we live and what awakens in our organism. It is also related to the perception of oneself as an entity.

Interoceptive receptors

In order to be able to perceive stimulation, there must be some kind of element in charge of detecting it. In other words, some kind of biological receptor must be present..

Interoceptive receptors are scattered throughout the organism, generally in all the major organs and blood vessels. They are found in the endoderm. The interoceptive system does not use a single type of receptor, but gathers information from mechanoreceptors (sensitive to deformation), thermoceptors (that capture temperature), baroreceptors (sensitive to blood pressure) or nociceptors (that capture the rupture of cells and send pain sensations) and reports the state of the organ or organs in question (these receptors can be affected by different stimuli or situations depending on the specific organ we are talking about).

Generally, these receptors remain silent, unless an alteration occurs that activates them and causes them to react by sending signals. For example, we don't usually pick up that our heart is going faster or slower unless we are nervous or racing, or that we are not or accelerated, or that we lack water unless the lack of water causes them to generate sensations (which will trigger the nervous system to trigger the perception of thirst to compensate).

Body systems in which this sensory function has been studied.

The sense of interoception extends to almost the entire set of organs and tissues of the organism. However, the role of this sense has been explored more often in some specific body systems.

Cardiovascular system

The system that has received the most attention in research. In this sense, interoceptive information allows us to have cardiac-type sensations such as the frequency or acceleration of the heart. such as heart rate or acceleration, or Blood Pressure levels. This information allows us, for example, to realize that we are suffering a heart attack, or that our pulse is accelerating.

The perception of alterations in this system is based mainly on the action of the heart, sending the information to somatosensory receptors in the thorax.. At the cerebral level, it is speculated that the right hemisphere may be more related to the conscious processing of cardiac information, but research has not shown conclusive data in this regard.

Respiratory system

Pulmonary interoception is another of the most studied, also linked to a large number of possible perceived sensations. Stretching and dilation, irritation and volume, pressure and movement are some of the information captured. Also We can also detect the existence of obstructions..

3. Gastrointestinal system

Movement, distension, temperature or even chemoception are some of the sensations linked to the interoception of the gastrointestinal tract. Although much of the information processed in this system is usually conscious, it has been observed that some small stimulations may not generate conscious perception. small stimulations may not generate conscious perception.

Alterations in interoception

Interoception is a very important sense that allows us to adjust our behavior to what is happening internally to our organism. However, it does not function correctly in all people, which can cause different problems.

These alterations can be due to excess or defect: it is possible that there is a hypersensitivity that causes the interoceptive receptors to be activated with little stimulation or that the receptors are not activated, which would make it very difficult to adjust the behavioral response.

This is the case for those with congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis or CIPA, and are unable to perceive the suffering generated by stimulation and (usually) temperature. and (usually) temperature. We can also find that interoception is altered in various psychiatric conditions, for example in some hallucinations typical of psychotic episodes or in manic episodes. Finally, the consumption of some drugs and/or intoxication by some toxic element can alter the interoceptive capacity of the organism.