TY  - JOUR
A1  - Herbert, Beate M.
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
T1  - The body in the mind On the relationship between interoception and embodiment
JF  - Topics in cognitive science
N2  - The processing, representation, and perception of bodily signals (interoception) plays an important role for human behavior. Theories of embodied cognition hold that higher cognitive processes operate on perceptual symbols and that concept use involves reactivations of the sensory-motor states that occur during experience with the world. Similarly, activation of interoceptive representations and meta-representations of bodily signals supporting interoceptive awareness are profoundly associated with emotional experience and cognitive functions. This article gives an overview over present findings and models on interoception and mechanisms of embodiment and highlights its relevance for disorders that are suggested to represent a translation deficit of bodily states into subjective feelings and self-awareness.
KW  - Interoception
KW  - Interoceptive awareness
KW  - Emotions
KW  - Time perception
KW  - Disturbances of embodiment
KW  - Alexithymia
KW  - Eating disorder
KW  - Self
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-8765.2012.01189.x
SN  - 1756-8757
VL  - 4
IS  - 4
SP  - 692
EP  - 704
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Hoboken
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Fuestoes, Juergen
A1  - Critchley, Hugo D.
T1  - On the generalised embodiment of pain: how interoceptive sensitivity modulates cutaneous pain perception
JF  - Pain : journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain
N2  - Individual differences in interoceptive sensitivity are associated with differences in reported intensity of emotional experience, vulnerability to anxiety and mood disorder and capacity for emotional self-regulation. Enhanced sensitivity to autonomic state is often accompanied by increased autonomic reactivity. Here we tested the hypothesis that healthy people classified as more interoceptively sensitive, by their performance of a heartbeat monitoring task, will demonstrate enhanced perception of pain. We further explored whether this effect is associated with a greater physiological reactivity to the pain stimuli. Using an algometer, cutaneous pressure pain was applied to the thenar eminence in 60 healthy participants. Heart rate variability and respiratory activity were recorded concurrently. We observed significant relationships between heightened interoceptive sensitivity and both enhanced sensitivity and decreased tolerance to pain. These effects were accompanied by a more pronounced parasympathetic decrease and a change in sympathovagal balance during pain assessment in the high, compared to the low, interoceptively sensitive group. Our study provides novel evidence that interoceptive sensitivity is associated with the experience and tolerability of pain in conjunction with reactive changes in autonomic balance.
KW  - Cutaneous pain perception
KW  - Embodiment
KW  - Insula
KW  - Interoception
KW  - Interoceptive sensitivity
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2012.04.030
SN  - 0304-3959
VL  - 153
IS  - 8
SP  - 1680
EP  - 1686
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -