Farb, NormanDaubenmier, JenniferPrice, Cynthia J.Gard, TimKerr, CatherineDunn, Barnaby D.Klein, Anne CarolynPaulus, Martin P.Mehling, Wolf E.2015-07-092015-07-092015Farb, Norman, Daubenmier, Jennifer, Price, Cynthia J., et al.. "Interoception, contemplative practice, and health." <i>Frontiers in Psychology,</i> 6, (2015) Frontiers Media: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00763.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/80863Interoception can be broadly defined as the sense of signals originating within the body. As such, interoception is critical for our sense of embodiment, motivation, and well-being. And yet, despite its importance, interoception remains poorly understood within modern science. This paper reviews interdisciplinary perspectives on interoception, with the goal of presenting a unified perspective from diverse fields such as neuroscience, clinical practice, and contemplative studies. It is hoped that this integrative effort will advance our understanding of how interoception determines well-being, and identify the central challenges to such understanding. To this end, we introduce an expanded taxonomy of interoceptive processes, arguing that many of these processes can be understood through an emerging predictive coding model for mindﾖbody integration. The model, which describes the tension between expected and felt body sensation, parallels contemplative theories, and implicates interoception in a variety of affective and psychosomatic disorders. We conclude that maladaptive construal of bodily sensations may lie at the heart of many contemporary maladies, and that contemplative practices may attenuate these interpretative biases, restoring a personﾒs sense of presence and agency in the world.engThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.Journal articleinteroceptioncontemplative practicemeditationbody awarenessmindfulnessyogamind-body therapieshttp://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00763