Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet.
Perspect Psychol Sci. 2023 Jan;18(1):224-238. doi: 10.1177/17456916221094509. Epub 2022 Aug 15.
In the past 2 decades, interoception has received increasing attention in the fields of psychology and cognitive science, as well as neuroscience and physiology. A plethora of studies adopted the perception of cardiac signals as a proxy for interoception. However, recent findings have cast doubt on the methodological and intrinsic validity of the tasks used thus far. Therefore, there is an ongoing effort to improve the existing cardiac interoceptive tasks and to identify novel channels to target the perception of the physiological state of the body. Amid such scientific abundancy, one could question whether the field has been partially neglecting one of our widest organs in terms of dimensions and functions: the skin. According to some views grounded on anatomical and physiological evidence, skin-mediated signals such as affective touch, pain, and temperature have been redefined as interoceptive. However, there is no agreement in this regard. Here, we discuss some of the anatomical, physiological, and experimental arguments supporting the scientific study of interoception by means of skin-mediated signals. We argue that more attention should be paid to the skin as a sensory organ that monitors the bodily physiological state and further propose thermosensation as a particularly attractive model of skin-mediated interoception.
在过去的 20 年中，内感受在心理学和认知科学领域，以及神经科学和生理学领域受到了越来越多的关注。大量的研究采用感知心脏信号作为内感受的替代物。然而，最近的发现对迄今为止使用的任务的方法学和内在有效性提出了质疑。因此，人们正在努力改进现有的心脏内感受任务，并确定新的途径来针对身体生理状态的感知。在这种科学繁荣的情况下，人们可能会质疑该领域是否在某种程度上忽略了我们身体中一个在尺寸和功能方面最广泛的器官：皮肤。根据一些基于解剖学和生理学证据的观点，皮肤介导的信号，如情感触摸、疼痛和温度，已经被重新定义为内感受。然而，在这方面并没有达成共识。在这里，我们讨论了一些支持通过皮肤介导的信号来研究内感受的解剖学、生理学和实验论据。我们认为，应该更加关注皮肤作为监测身体生理状态的感觉器官，并进一步提出热感觉作为皮肤介导的内感受的一个特别有吸引力的模型。
