interoception /in-tair-oh-SEP-shən/. noun. The sense of conditions and stimuli within the body. Compare to exteroception (the sense of stimuli acting on the body) and proprioception (the sense of the position of the body, and parts of the body, to other bodies or parts of the body).
“We gain access to the body’s wisdom through interoception, which literally means ‘perceiving within.’” (Daniel J. Siegel)
“In addition to proprioception, there is another not-commonly-known sense called interoception. This is the sense of knowing how your body is feeling from the inside. It is not based in thinking about how your body is, but on the direct experiencing of it. It is an internal, embodied feeling, a felt sense. Someone asks you how you are feeling and you say ‘fine.’ How do you know you are fine? Interoception.” (Jon Kabat-Zinn)
“That will prepare you to understand the gist of interoception, which is the origin of feeling. After that, we’ll discover the unexpected and frankly astonishing influence that interoception has over your thoughts, decisions, and actions every day.” (Lisa Feldman Barrett)
“…in the conventional view, the well-discriminated feelings of temperature, itch and pain are associated with an ‘exteroceptive’ somatosensory system, whereas the less distinct visceral feelings of vasomotor activity, hunger, thirst and internal sensations are associated with a separate ‘interoceptive’ system.” (A.D. “Bud” Craig)
“Buddhist meditation increases the thickness of the prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula (structures associated with attention, interoception and sensory processing)…” (Sarah Lazar)