Interoception can be considered the “conscious awareness of internal systems”. Sometimes referred to as our “8th sense”, it is implicated in maintaining the homeostasis of both our physiological and psychological states. As an example, consider the many internal cues that indicate that you are “tired”. You assign the affective value of “tired” to a predictable constellation of internal cues (heavy eyes, muscle fatigue, difficulty focusing). This area of sensory processing has been examined heavily in domains of behavioral health and pediatric development, but emerging evidence suggests that the interoceptive nature of pain processing is also mediated by conscious intrinsic factors.
