The realm of the senses extends far beyond the five basic modes
of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. The mammalian brain
also is wired for the senses of balance (equilibrioception),
temperature (thermoception), and body position and orientation
(proprioception). Particularly over the past decade,
neuroscientists also have been mapping the vast territory of
“interoception,” which gives a person a sense of the
physiological condition of his body, and includes hunger,
thirst, pain, and the need to breathe, among many other bodily
feelings. Researchers are keen to know more about interoception
because it is widely believed to form the foundation of our
emotions and behavioral motivations. “So for example, if I’m
hungry, I want to eat. If I’m exhausted, I want to rest. If I
feel excited, I want to feed that excitement,” explains Martin
Paulus, a psychiatrist and neurobiologist whose work at the
University of California at San Diego includes research on
interoceptive brain networks. According to the influenti