Interoception, contemplative practice, and health

TLDR

Interoception, the sense of internal bodily signals, is essential for embodiment, motivation, and well‑being, yet remains poorly understood in contemporary science. This review aims to synthesize interdisciplinary perspectives on interoception from neuroscience, clinical practice, and contemplative studies to provide a unified framework and highlight key challenges to advancing its understanding. The authors propose an expanded taxonomy of interoceptive processes grounded in a predictive‑coding model that describes the tension between expected and felt sensations, aligning with contemplative theories and implicating interoception in affective and psychosomatic disorders. They conclude that maladaptive interpretations of bodily sensations underlie many modern ailments, and that contemplative practices can reduce these biases, restoring a person’s sense of presence and agency.

Abstract

Interoception can be broadly defined as the sense of signals originating within the body. As such, interoception is critical for our sense of embodiment, motivation and well-being. And yet, despite its importance, interoception remains poorly understood within modern science. This paper reviews interdisciplinary perspectives on interoception, with the goal of presenting a unified perspective from diverse fields such as neuroscience, clinical practice, and contemplative studies. It is hoped that this integrative effort will advance our understanding of how interoception determines well-being, and identify the central challenges to such understanding. To this end, we introduce an expanded taxonomy of interoceptive processes, arguing that many of these processes can be understood through an emerging predictive coding model for mind-body integration. The model, which describes the tension between expected and felt body sensation, parallels contemplative theories, and implicates interoception in a variety of affective and psychosomatic disorders. We conclude that maladaptive construal of bodily sensations may lie at the heart of many contemporary maladies, and that contemplative practices may attenuate these interpretative biases, restoring a person's sense of presence and agency in the world.