Neural Mechanisms of Interoceptive Representation and Regulation

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The human brain continuously updates representations of one’s internal body state, a process known as interoception. The long-term goals of this research program are to understand the neural mechanisms supporting interoception and how to efficiently and objectively assess interoceptive capacity. Using behavioral, psychophysiological, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methods, we intend to examine the psychological and neural bases for how interoception integrates physiology with cognition to inform emotional experience, and ultimately how these processes shape subjective awareness. Furthermore, we will examine whether interoceptive attention constitutes a form of arousal regulation that may be used to achieve valued physiological states. Consideration of emotion in terms of its physical, neural, and cognitive components will provide a more complete understanding of human emotion.