The Brain-Body Connection: Understanding Interoception

Have you ever stopped to think about how your brain communicates with your body? While we know that our senses are the primary way we interact with the world around us, we don’t often think about the sense which helps us tune into the world inside of our bodies: interoception.

Interoception refers to the sense that allows us to perceive the internal state of our body, including sensations like hunger, thirst, heartbeat, and breathing. It's through this sense that our brain receives signals from our body's internal organs, including the heart, lungs, and digestive system.

Understanding the brain-body connection and the role of interoception can have important implications for our health and well-being, security within our body and how we regulate our arousal state. By tuning into our bodily sensations and developing our interoception sense, we can better regulate our emotions, make more informed decisions about our health, and improve our ability to cope with stress and anxiety.

Our interoception receptors are all over our bodies - all our organs, blood vessels, in our fascia (connective tissue) This very diffuse and wide spread arrangement of interoceptive receptors is constantly sending signals to our brain on the 'state of our body' and the body is constantly getting information back from our brains in order to maintain 'homeostasis'. 

A very basic function of interoception processing is our very survival - this is where hunger and thirst, the urge to use the bathroom and the feelings of sleepiness are crucial so that we can provide our bodies with what it needs to stay alive. 

Interoception Awareness or the ability to tune into these signals is therefore also crucial for our survival. But for some children with sensory processing difficulties, this is not easy. The design of the interoception receptors alone means that the body signals are often missed as they are so diffuse and wide spread. Add to this the findings by Dr Craig that the Insular Cortex (the place in the brain where interoception signals are analysed) is often smaller or under-developed in autistic individuals. 

As OT's with our role in supporting our clients with the occupations of childhood, interoception processing is one of the foundational sensory areas we should be considering when our clients present with functional difficulties in areas of sleep, eating/feeding, toileting, social interactions, motor skills and learning. 

Looking forward to sharing more with you in the next blog post: 

The Surprising Link Between Interoception and Mental Health

Yours in Sensory,

Kerry