Addressing the need for new interoceptive methods

Internal bodily signals are dynamically coupled to brain dynamics; interoception, the ‘sensing’ of internal signals,
can influence cognition, emotion and perception. An appreciation of the wide-ranging implications of interoceptive
processing has surpassed the range and breadth of available interoceptive methods. New techniques are
required to support the scientific study of interoception and this special issue brings together a diverse array of
novel interoceptive methods and assessments, spanning psychophysiology, experimental psychology, affective
neuroscience and computational approaches, divided into 5 core sections. Section 1 presents novel theoretical
and computational models of interoception, while section two brings together a range of perspectives on
questionnaire measures of interoception. Section 3 is devoted to the development of novel methods to assess
interoception in behavioral tasks and section 4 focuses on the validity and confounds present in a range of
methods used to assess interoception. Finally, section 5 details new methodological insights of interoception in
the domains of emotion, cognition and health. Improved interoceptive methods are needed to progress this field;
greater precision in techniques and core interoceptive constructs will aid in the mapping of interoceptive
measures to cognition and emotion factors, as well as help to elucidate precise interoceptive alterations observed
in clinical conditions.