Neurophysiological dynamics of visceral signals in emotion, self and bodily consciousness.
Proceedings. Biological sciences – June 01, 2025
Source: PubMed
Summary
Your body's internal signals shape your emotions and sense of self more than you might think. Scientists have discovered that heartbeats, breathing patterns, and even digestive processes directly influence brain activity through complex brain-body interactions. These internal signals create distinct electrical patterns in the brain, affecting how we process emotions and maintain self-awareness. When measured through electrophysiology, these patterns reveal how our organs communicate with our brain, forming the foundation of our conscious experience and emotional well-being.
Abstract
Bodily organs such as the heart and the lungs play a crucial role in maintaining physiological homeostasis in a continuous closed-loop interaction with the brain. Beyond their vital role, recent developments have emphasized the remarkable contribution of bodily signals to high-level brain functions. A direct route by which bodily signals influence brain functioning is via modulation of electrophysiological dynamics, which in turn influences the integration and processing of emotional and self-related information regulating our conscious experience. Drawing on electrophysiological investigations, we provide a comprehensive picture of the electrophysiology of interoception and its contribution to emotion, self and bodily consciousness, with a focus on cardiac, respiratory and gastric interoception. We provide evidence that altered neurophysiological responses in interoception might underlie deficits in psychopathology. We also summarize the limited evidence on the development of the electrophysiology of interoception during infancy and adolescence, as well as describing some attempts to investigate causality in the neural mechanisms underpinning interoception. A number of important areas for further research are highlighted.