The region of the brain where interoception is controlled is called the insula cortex. Deep in the brain, it’s from here we make our decisions on how to act on information we receive from the body about our internal sensations. By understanding which parts of the brain help us to process and control interoception we can build a more detailed picture of the two-way flow of information between brain and body. Ultimately, this may help us develop better therapies and treatments for disorders where interoception is functioning poorly.

Would you like to participate in our pilot study to test a unique online training programme? We want to investigate whether internal body awareness can help improve mental health and reduce lockdown-related stress. Participants, who will take part remotely, will be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 gift voucher.

Lifestyle Medicine is a branch of healthcare where changes to lifestyle habits are prescribed by medical professionals to help treat and reverse diseases. In 2020 over 550 healthcare professionals, including NHS doctors, took part in an online course to train in delivering this approach to their patients.

Public speaking.Heights.Spiders. Especially long-legged ones. Whatever the threat, when we’re anxious, we experience a range of different sensations inside our bodies. Things like breathlessness, increased

From pre-exam nerves to worrying about family problems, we’ve all felt anxious at some point in our lives. The familiar feelings in our bodies that accompany anxiety can be pretty unpleasant: your heart in your mouth, your stomach doing somersaults, your palms uncomfortably clammy. Evidence is building that it is possible to help reduce anxiety by being more aware of bodily sensations as they arise.

Whatever your sport and however you train, breathing is important. But for many of us, how we breathe when we train may be holding us back.
By deliberately slowing our breathing, we can dial down the body’s stress response and activate its relaxation response. Blood and oxygen are more efficiently distributed around the body.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Do you want to know the science behind this well-known phrase?
In this post we discuss hormesis, which refers to the way organisms respond to stress factors.
Depending the strength and duration of the stressor, the response can be beneficial or harmful to us.

Our bodies are programmed to follow a 24-hour cycle that roughly matches the daily rotation of the earth on its axis. This natural cycle is called the circadian rhythm, an essential component of the body that helps to regulate many of our internal processes.
In this article we show how rhythms are at the heart of good health – and give you easy tips to put your body back in sync with the rhythms that have supported us for millennia.

It’s an often-asked question to which you’ve probably heard a number of different answers. Perhaps you’ve heard it releases feel-good chemicals. Or maybe it’s because it takes your mind off other things and boosts your self-esteem. What’s the truth? In this post, we’re going to find out, as well as taking a look at how we can get the most out of our training.

Modern science almost exclusively associates mental health with the brain. While this is certainly true to an extent, it doesn’t quite tell the whole story. New research into interoception indicates that the rest of the body may also have a significant part to play with what’s going on inside our heads – we explain more in this post.