Interoception is how your brain senses and responds to what’s going on inside your body. “It’s how we know when we’re hungry, thirsty, anxious, or even need to take a deep breath,” says Wen G. Chen, ...

Scientists are learning how the brain knows what’s happening throughout the body, and how that process might go awry in some psychiatric disorders. By Carl Zimmer Last year, Ardem Patapoutian got a ...

A new study in PLOS One assesses the interoceptive powers of athletes. Interoception, the study explains, is “the detection and perception of stimuli originating from within the body.” I assumed this ...

Experiencing feelings of being overwhelmed, stressed and anxious can occur relatively quickly. That’s why emotional self-regulation (ESR) is such an important skill. It helps us manage emotions, cope ...

The treatment was unusual in that alongside talk therapy, May underwent several sessions in a sensory-deprivation chamber: a dark, soundproof room where she floated in a shallow pool of water heated ...

LYING in the dark, my senses are straining for inputs and finding none. I am floating in warm, salty water that is so close to my body temperature, I can’t tell where my body ends and the water begins ...

Sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing – these are the senses we’re probably all familiar with. But we humans may not be limited to just five: some scientists argue for a “sixth sense” – though there ...

Maddy has a degree in biochemistry from the University of York and specializes in reporting on health, medicine, and genetics. Maddy has a degree in biochemistry from the University of York and ...