Interoception: The inner sense driving your thoughts

Interoception: The inner sense driving your thoughts Serenity Strull/BBC/Getty Images Sometimes our bodies react to the world around us before we realise, so how do internal signals such as a quickening heart or deep breathing affect our thoughts? While we're largely familiar with the five outward-facing or "exteroceptive" senses – sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch ­– interoception is our ability to perceive and interpret signals coming from within our own bodies. "Interoception is the processing of bodily signals that come from the inside," says Jennifer Murphy, who researches interoception and how it impacts cognition and mental health at Royal Holloway University of London. "I've long worried that interoception research is hard because of the difficulty of precise measurement and manipulation of physiological variables and/or interoceptive signals," says Seth. "You can potentially become overly sensitive to every little thing that's happening in your body and I imagine that could drive some kind of anxiety as well," Seth warns.