In this way, Interoceptive signals can guide and inform without
fully penetrating conscious awareness.
Alexithymia, defined as an impaired
ability to detect and identify emotions, is associated with reduced Interoceptive accuracy.
Emotional problems are common in eating disorders, so perhaps Interoceptive problems make it difficult for us to notice fullness
and hunger and contribute to emotional difficulties and disordered eating as a coping mechanism.
Researchers do not fully understand how interoception and eating habits develop, especially during childhood and adolescence, but we know that adolescence is a time
when eating difficulties often begin and Interoceptive abilities get worse.
My colleagues and I demonstrated that Interoceptive accuracy was enhanced in those traders who were most adept at trading,
potentially grounding their intuitive instincts in a capacity to sense informative changes in internal bodily signals.
The insula is a region buried deep within the
cerebral cortex that plays a key role in Interoceptive processing(how much or how little attention one pays
to sensory information within the body), emotion regulation, and self-awareness.