On introspection, body awareness, and the like:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/uoc--ur101513.php

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/afps-tsl070113.php

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/120730_lucid

http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273%2812%2900226-7

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20626-brain-trades-off-illusionspotting-and-introspection.html

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/cp-nrb042511.php

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/gumc-mii110310.php

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19663-introspection-brain-networks-fully-formed-at-birth.html

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/aaft-bml091010.php

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/uot-ivp092110.php

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19471-brains-grey-matter-helps-you-introspect.html

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9019-watching-the-brain-switch-off-selfawareness.html

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/329/5998/1541.abstract

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-06/ucl-hsr061110.php

http://lnco.epfl.ch/webdav/site/lnco/users/175936/public/Ehrsson_2004.pdf

Regards,

Joachim

Wow! thanks a lot Joachim!!

Do you mean introspection (in the mind) or Interoception /visceroception (the innerbody state)?

If it is interoception then you can read papers from Hugo Critchley or Bud Craid on the anterior cingulate cortex or the anterior insula...

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.05990.x/abstract

http://neurophenomenology.wordpress.com/tag/bud-craig/

Http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v3/n8/full/nrn894.html

Smallwood, J., et al. "Cooperation between the default mode network and the frontal-parietal network in the production of an internal train of thought." Brain Research In Press, Corrected Proof.

The ability to generate and sustain an internal train of thought unrelated to external reality frees an agent from the constraints of only acting on immediate, environmentally triggered events. The current paper proposes that such thought is produced through cooperation between autobiographical information provided by the default mode network and a frontal-parietal control network which helps sustain and buffer internal trains of thought against disruption by the external world. This hypothesis explains at least two features of the literature on internally guided thought. First, access to the top-down control system is a generally accepted prerequisite of conscious experience; this explains why activation of this system and default mode activity is often observed together during periods of internally guided thought. Second, because the top-down attentional control system has a limited capacity, internally and externally driven streams can come into conflict, with the result that perceptual information must be denied attentional amplification if the internal stream is to be maintained. This explains why internal thought is routinely associated with a state of perceptual decoupling, reflected in both measured anticorrelations between the default mode network and sensory areas and the manner in which task unrelated thoughts compromise task performance. This paper offers a hypothesis that should help to constrain and guide interpretations, investigations, and analyses of the neural processes involved in internally driven cognition. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Special Issue The Cognitive Neuroscience.

If you mean 'interoception' rather than 'introspection' then you might like to start with Seth's latest paper in TICs and follow the references on the neural network. Otherwise A D Craig

Nicolas Vermeulen: I'm interested in Interoception/visceroception. I'm looking for relationships between the acute and post-acute effects of the psychoactive brew Ayahuasca and the act of reflecting upon one's own bodily feelings. Thank you for the references. Do you know any research papers focusing on this topic?

Thanks Richard Gray for the references! If you know more research papers focusing on the neural correlates of interoception/visceroception please let me know. You have been of much help for my research!

Vivien Ainley: it's interoception what I'm interested in. Can you point me to Seth's paper you suggest? Thanks a lot!

The Seth paper link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24126130

Best, Erik

Amygdala- Primer system- fires us up. Need this in emergency situations i.e. 9/11

Hippocampus- Memory System...Paired association

Nucleus Accumbens- Reward and Pleasure System/Source of addiction behavior

Orbitofrontal Cortex- Emotional Executive Functioning/automatic response to social cues/ emotional valence or value judgment.

Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex- response inhibition and emotional regulation

Anterior Cingulate cortex- task motivation and reward based thinking again self regulation and emotional regulation..the brain's gear shifter between cognitiion and emotion.

Your question warrants more than a simple answer but if you start looking at the brain and the basic functions independently then start to see how they work interdependently you will have a better understanding of "who" does what in the brain. We still are developing the answer to your question. You might want to look into Theories of Mind.

Thanks Erik and Carla for your help.

Intraception and extraception are seemingly difficult to separate as noted earlier inasmuch as one system tends to shut down the other given the finite amount of attentional resources. In clinical work, I find that prefrontal and frontal dysfunction result in the individual favoring intraception which is often faulty with the net result of projection of ego alien material.

Bud craig, how do you feel now? Anterior-posterior insula gradient

Interoception, the sensory perception of the total body interior, has to be discerned from the term introspection, the ability to reflect mental processes, reasoning, and will. Interoception should actually be written enteroception (as is in many languages), as it is derived from ancient greek τα εντερα ta entera, the guts, bowels, innards, intestines. The distinction of interoception from exteroception, proprioception, and nociception dates back to Charles Scott Sherrington 1906, The Integrative Action of the Nervous System (NY, Charles Scribner's Sons), where he emphasizes the unitary sensing of perceptions from sensory perceptions. In terms of sensory physiology, interoception comprises input from internal mechanoreceptors, chemoreceptors, and the afferent sensory part of the nervus vagus. In contrast to fast myelinated afferent pathways, the latter consist of small unmylinated fibers with slow reaction. Together with the internal perception of emotional colorations, they also provide what Antonio Damasio had termed the somatic markers of emotions. Psychotherapists refer to this interocepted affective unity over time as the „sense of self“. Some known receptor functions are:

Pulmonary stretch receptors controling respiratory rates, chemoreceptors monitoring carbon dioxide levels, circulatory chemoreceptors can measure e.g. salt, sugar or hormone levels, cutaneous thermo- and mechanoreceptors responding to temperature or vasodilatation, stretch receptors in the gastrointestinal tract, bladder, and rectum sensing distension of these organs. As in proprioception or extrapyramidal motor system, there is likelihood that not all receptor types may have been discovered yet.

Afferent visceral and somatic information is carried to the hypothalamus and limbic system. Sensory vagal information is relayed in the medulla oblongata (Nucleus spinalis nervi trigemini), the pons (Nucleus pontinus nervi trigemini), and the solitary tract Fasern zum (Nucleus tractus solitarii). Vagal information enters cortical structures at the level of the olive (Sulcus retroolivaris). Neocortical regions processing interoceptive information are mainly:

• Anterior cingulate and paracingulate (BAs 24, 32)-monitoring and reflection of visceral and emotional information

• Posterior cingulate (BAs 23, 30, 31)-interoceptive projection and association areas

• Anterior insula and operculum-monitoring of autonomic homeostasis and social emotion

• Basal medial precuneus (BA 7)-integration with proprioceptive and episodic memory information.

Most important literature: Hugo Critchley (autonomic neuroscience), Qasi Azis, Steve Coen (visceral perception).

Lemche, E. (1998a). The development of the body image in the first three years of life. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, 21(2): 155-274. (New York, NY, International Universities Press, ISSN 0161-5289.

Lemche, E., Giampietro, V.P., Brammer, M.J., Surguladze, S.A., Williams, S.C.R., Phillips, M.L. (2012). Somatization severity associated with postero-medial structures. Scientific Reports 3, 1032 (doi: 10.1038/srep01032). (London, UK, Nature Publishing Group, ISSN: 2045-2322).

Lemche, E., Surguladze, S.A., Giampietro, V.P., Brammer, M.J., Williams, S.C.R., Sierra, M., David, A.S., Phillips, M.L. (2013b). Interoceptive-reflective regions differentiate alexithymia traits in depersonalization disorder. Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging: 214: 66-72, (doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2013.05.006)(Amsterdam, NL, Elsevier Science B.V. ISSN: 0925-4927).

Here are some references concerning your question among others about the neural correlates to self-awareness. For further information I can recommend you to contact dr George P. Prigatano at the Barrow Institute, Phoenix, Arizona, US.

Further references which I missed.

Sorry I send you the references one by one

Regards

Eva

Regards

Eva

Regards and good luck!

Eva

I will also add the work of the Swedish researcher dr Wiens

Regards

Eva

Eva, thanks very much for these references. Best wishes. John

Utilizing an EEG actuarial with clinical patients I have noted that a beta/gamma activation in the anterior aspect of the right posterior parietal lobe P4a indicates pronounced hypersensitivity to interior sensations while a delta registration suggests an almost stoical reaction to internal changes.

Activation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the insular cortex, the thalamus and the brainstem when bodily states significantly deviated from the steady state.

In addition, a magnetoencephalography study reported that activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, ventromedial frontal cortex, ACC and somatosensory area was specifically related to the subjective experience of emotion [Rudrauf et al., 2009].

You can obtain some details in the following article which maybe useful.

Terasawa, Y., Fukushima, H., & Umeda, S. (2013). How does interoceptive awareness interact with the subjective experience of emotion? An fMRI Study. Human Brain Mapping, 34(3), 598-612.

Thanks a lot to everyone, your answers have been very helpful for my research. Now, since I'm looking into psychotherapeutic potential of the amazonian psychoactive brew ayahuasca, I wonder if anyone know any research linking interoception and psychoactive plants (particularily ayahuasca).

Again, thanks a lot for your valuable help!

I think, any neuron participating in perception of information makes the contribution to subjective emotional experience? And the mechanism is connected with change of viability (adaptation state) of perceptual neurons. Look at this concept here http://www.fiziolog.isu.ru/murik/Lit%20English.files/MurikSE_On_the_functional_states_of_nerve_cells__.pdf

And here http://www.fiziolog.isu.ru/murik/Lit%20English.files/MurikSE_Polarization_processes_.pdf

and here http://www.fiziolog.isu.ru/murik/Lit%20English.files/MurikSE_On_the_functional_states_of_nerve_cells__.pdf