TY - JOUR

T1 - Neurobehavioral evidence of interoceptive sensitivity in early infancy

AU - Maister, Lara

AU - Tang, Teresa

AU - Tsakiris, Manos

N1 - © 2017, Maister et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

PY - 2017/8/8

Y1 - 2017/8/8

N2 - Interoception, the sensitivity to visceral sensations, plays an important role in homeostasis and guiding motivated behaviour. It is also considered to be fundamental to self-awareness. Despite its importance, the developmental origins of interoceptive sensitivity remain unexplored. We here provide the first evidence for implicit, flexible interoceptive sensitivity in 5 month old infants using a novel behavioural measure, coupled with an established cortical index of interoceptive processing. These findings have important implications for the understanding of the early developmental stages of self-awareness, self-regulation and socio-emotional abilities.

AB - Interoception, the sensitivity to visceral sensations, plays an important role in homeostasis and guiding motivated behaviour. It is also considered to be fundamental to self-awareness. Despite its importance, the developmental origins of interoceptive sensitivity remain unexplored. We here provide the first evidence for implicit, flexible interoceptive sensitivity in 5 month old infants using a novel behavioural measure, coupled with an established cortical index of interoceptive processing. These findings have important implications for the understanding of the early developmental stages of self-awareness, self-regulation and socio-emotional abilities.

KW - Behavior

KW - Child Development

KW - Electrocardiography

KW - Heart Rate

KW - Homeostasis

KW - Humans

KW - Infant

KW - Interoception

U2 - 10.7554/eLife.25318

DO - 10.7554/eLife.25318

M3 - Article

C2 - 28784203

VL - 6

JO - Elife

JF - Elife

SN - 2050-084X

ER -