History of Interoception: An Incomplete Jigsaw

In this chapter, presenting the history of interoception research, we tell six parallel stories: (1) how the initially narrow definition of interoception became broader, (2) how, instead of passive reception, active perception came into focus, (3) how the roots of accuracy measures and questionnaires differed from the beginning (and how they are related to major theories of emotion), (4) how various levels of consciousness were investigated, starting with conditioning, (5) what attempts to alter interoception looked like, and finally (6) how the view of body focus changed from negative to positive. We hope that these jigsaw pieces from the past help provide a more complete picture of recent interoception research.