Psychological and neural mechanisms of interoception and emotions

Abstract

The function of bodily sensation in the subjective feeling of emotion has been one of the intriguing topics in psychological and psychiatric research for some decades. Findings from recent cognitive neuroscience studies have supported the notion that the integration of intero-ception and environmental information is crucial for the experience of emotion. The cumulative evidence leads to new perspectives for understanding the mechanisms of emotion and suggests alternative approaches to treating affective disorders such as anxiety disorder. In this review, we introduce psychological and neuroimaging studies on the relationship between interoception and emotional experience and discuss the impact of interoception on emotional and cognitive processing .