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.******The neuroscience model to be tested is informed by the applicant's prior work, suggesting an interoceptive pathway from primary representation in the posterior insula to integration with motivational context in the anterior insula and adjacent prefrontal cortex. To experimentally characterize these networks, 4 clusters of research are proposed. First, we will use a novel experimental paradigm that relies on discrimination of respiratory sensation to better characterize individual differences in interoceptive capacity. Second, we will examine the impact of interoceptive attention on emotional experience, from both transient interoceptive attention and as chronically cultivated through mindfulness training programs, testing the hypothesis that the intensity of emotional experience is a product of its interoceptive tone. Third, we will examine the neural correlates of interoceptive and exteroceptive attention using these novel paradigms to better characterize the unique functional components of interoceptive processing in the brain. Finally, we will examine the impact of interoceptive attention on self-regulation, both in terms of structuring the physiological arousal's role in decision making and in terms of the resolution of such arousal following emotion provocation. ******This research addresses an age-old debate around the extent to which emotions originate in visceral body signals. It also informs our understanding of the temporal dynamics of affective experience, emotion regulation, and the role of conscious awareness in representing and regulating changes within the body.