Did you realize that you have 8 sensory systems?! When we think of sensory systems most people commonly think of our 5 main senses: visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory (taste) and olfactory (smell). Our 6th and 7th sensory systems are proprioception (body awareness) and vestibular (movement). Our 8th sensory system is our interoceptive system which is our sensory system that gives us information regarding the internal condition of our body.
What Exactly is
Interoception?
The
interoceptive system has specialized cells (receptors) that are responsible for
collecting important sensory information.
In the case of interoception, the receptors are located throughout most
of the tissues in our body. The
information gathered by these receptors is sent to a specific area of the brain
called the insular cortex, or insula for short. The insula translates the incoming messages
and enables us to identify our current body states. In other words, interoception allows us to
answer the question, “How do I feel?”
Interoception allows us to experience feelings
of tickle, hunger, fullness, social touch, need for bathroom, itch, muscle
tension, pain, sexual arousal, nausea, physical exertion, breathing rate, heart
rate, thirst and every single emotion.
Interoceptive
Awareness (IA) is the ability to notice sensations
and give meaning to the
sensations. The insula is the
interoception center of the brain.
Research has found that people with well-functioning insula are more
aware of the feelings within the body.
These individuals are described as having good IA.
Good
levels of IA are clearly linked to the development of many important skills
areas including self-awareness, self-regulation, problem solving, intuition,
flexibility of thought, social awareness, and perspective taking. On the other hand, individuals with reduced
IA have difficulty with the same skills which, in turn, can have a significant
impact on health, well-being, and successful participation in everyday
activities.
Based on
substantial research, we now know that the insula, or the interoceptive center
of the brain, is significantly impacted in people with Autism Spectrum Disorder
(ASD) and that there is brain-based evidence backing the interoceptive
experiences reported by individuals with ASD.
Without good IA,
good self-regulation cannot exist!
Therefore, IA needs to be a main focus when addressing
self-regulation needs.
Interoception Resources
Kelly Mahler, MS, OTR/L is the author of the book, Interoception: The Eighth Sensory System. She has also developed the Comprehensive Assessment for Interoceptive Awareness.
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| CLICK THE IMAGES BELOW TO BE DIRECTED TO PURCHASING SITE |
This
assessment includes The Interoceptive Awareness Interview, Assessment of
Self-Regulation and The Caregiver Questionnaire for Interoceptive Awareness.
In regards to the Assessment of
Self-Regulation the percentage scores are not
standardized or normed, but it gives you a calculated number to serve as
baseline.
There is a huge need to have a standardized
measure of interoception for kids. Kelly is currently working with a few
physicians on a large interoception research project and she is hopeful that a
side benefit of their work is to have a measure that can be used by others. At
this point, that research project is a year or two away from completion.
If you know of anyone looking for a research
project, Kelly is happy to share her assessment and interested researchers
could at least get normed scores for different ages :) Kelly welcomes people interested in research
opportunities to contact her at mahlerautism@gmail.com.
What Can We Do To Help Develop Interoceptive Awareness?
1. Be Positive…And Focus on the Positive!
- Establish a concrete concept of positive feeling emotions – just start with 2 or 3 different emotions. For example, start with excited, happy and relaxed/calm.
- Then, connect those identified emotions to experiences that cause those positive feelings. For example, I become excited when I win the BINGO game in class. I am happy when my teacher writes a nice note on my test. I am relaxed/calm when I sit in my beanbag chair and read a book.
- Finally, work on connecting those emotions to a description of the sensation noticed when feeling that emotion. For example, my heart starts to race when I feel excited! My body feels warm when I am happy. My muscles feel loose when I am relaxed/calm.
2. Body Checks
- Body Check Charts make the abstractness of internal sensations more concrete by having a visual structure to represent those internal experiences.
- The Body Check Charts displayed below are examples of visually structured methods for building awareness of body signals.
- More information at www.mahlerautism.com
- Body Check Chart Directions
Alternate ideas that can make the process of using the Body Check Chart fun and personalized for a particular student:
- Make a full size Body Check Chart by tracing the person’s body and putting their name on it.
- Pointing to a body part on the chart and asking the person to wiggle the corresponding area.
- Pointing to the body parts in the chart while playing Simon Says.
- Making an observation about the person’s body part (fingers tapping, feet shaking, etc.) and labeling it on the chart.
- Experimenting with sensations of a body part and describing how it feels like touching different textures, tasting different foods, listening to different sounds, etc.
3. Body – Emotion – Cause
- This is a great resource developed by Kelly Mahler! It’s a visual guide intended to be used for in the moment processing connecting positive feeling body signals and emotions to the cause or context of the situation (see the example below):
We need to know what emotion we are feeling in order to control it!
An individual can be taught 100’s of coping strategies, but it is not until we have a clear indicator of when to use a strategy and which strategy is the best match for the emotion at hand that we will be effective emotion regulators across different situations and settings.
Self-regulation is our ability to control the way we feel and act. The interoceptive system drives our self-regulation behaviors. Good interoceptive awareness is absolutely crucial to effective self-regulation!
Want to learn more?
- BrainScience Podcast featuring Dr. Bud Craig
- Advance for Occupational Therapy: 2-Part Interoception Article
- FacebookGroup – Interoception: The Eighth Sensory System
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