Open AccessNeural systems connecting interoceptive awareness and feelings
Author(s) -
Pollatos Olga,
Gramann Klaus,
Schandry Rainer
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
human brain mapping
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.005
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1097-0193
pISSN - 1065-9471
DOI - 10.1002/hbm.20258
Subject(s) - psychology , feeling , interoception , insula , perception , brain activity and meditation , electroencephalography , cognitive psychology , neural correlates of consciousness , functional magnetic resonance imaging , anterior cingulate cortex , neuroscience , cognition , social psychology
In many theories of emotions the representations of bodily responses play an important role for subjective feelings. We tested the hypothesis that the perception of bodily states is positively related to the experienced intensity of feelings as well as to the activity of first‐order and second‐order brain structures involved in the processing of feelings. Using a heartbeat perception task, subjects were separated into groups with either high or poor interoceptive awareness. During emotional picture presentation we measured high‐density EEG and used spatiotemporal current density reconstruction to identify regions involved in both interoceptive awareness and emotion processing. We observed a positive relation between interoceptive awareness and the experienced intensity of emotions. Furthermore, the P300 amplitudes to pleasant and unpleasant pictures were enhanced for subjects with high interoceptive awareness. The source reconstruction revealed that interoceptive awareness is related to an enhanced activation in both first‐order structures (insula, somatosensory cortices) and second‐order structures (anterior cingulate, prefrontal cortices). We conclude that the perception of bodily states is a crucial determinant for the processing and the subjective experience of feelings. Hum. Brain Mapping, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.