The interoceptive mind : from homeostasis to awareness

Introduction -- Interoception and the autonomic nervous system: Bottom-up meets top-down -- Mentalizing Interoception: Advances and Challenges -- The Body as First Prior: Interoceptive Predictive Processing and the Primacy of Self-Models -- Interoceptive Signals, Brain Dynamics and Subjectivity -- The Embodiment of Time: How Interoception Shapes the Perception of Time -- The Neurobiology of Gut Feelings -- The Cutaneous Borders of Interoception: Active and Social Inference on Pain and Pleasure on The Skin -- From Health to Disease: Interoception in Physical and Mental Health -- Interoception and Emotion: Shared Mechanisms and Clinical Implications -- The Somatic Error Hypothesis of Anxiety -- The Relevance of Interoception for Eating Behavior and Eating Disorders -- Cardiac Interoception in Neurological Conditions and its Relevance for Dimensional Approaches -- Interoception, Categorization and Symptom Perception -- Interoceptive Appraisal and Mental Health -- Towards a Philosophy of Interoception: Subjectivity and Experience -- From physiology to experience: enriching existing conceptions of "arousal" in affective science -- Was Descartes right after all? An affective background for bodily awareness -- Allostasis, Interoception, and the Free Energy Principle: Feeling our Way Forward-- Subjectivity as a Sentient Perspective and the Role of Interoception-- Inside Insight: A Phenomenology of Interoception

Interoception is the body-to-brain axis of sensations that originates from the internal body and visceral organs. It plays a unique role in ensuring homeostasis, allowing human beings to experience and perceive the state of their bodies at any one time.

However, interoception is rapidly gaining interest amongst those studying the human mind. It is believed that beyond homeostasis interoception is fundamental in understanding human emotion and motivation and their impact upon behavior. That link between interoception and self-awareness is supported by a growing body of experimental findings.

The Interoceptive Mind: From Homeostasis to Awareness offers a state-of-the-art overview of, and insights into, the role of interoception for mental life, awareness, subjectivity, affect, and cognition. Structured across three parts, this multidisciplinary volume highlights the role that interoceptive signals, and our awareness of them, play in our mental life. It considers deficits in interoceptive processing and awareness in various mental health conditions. But it also considers the equally important role of interoception for well-being, approaching interoception from both a theoretical and a philosophical perspective.

Written by leading experts in their fields, all chapters within this volume share a common concern for what it means to experience oneself, for the crucial role of emotions, and for issues of health and wellbeing. Each of those concerns is discussed on the joint basis of our bodily existence and interoception. The research presented here will undoubtedly accelerate the much-anticipated coming of age of interoceptive research in psychology, cognitive neurosciences and philosophy, making this vital reading for anyone working in those fields.