All in the Mind What is interoception, and how mood can affect how well your vaccine works
May 20, 2025
Caroline Williams, science journalist and author who explains interoception and how we sense our bodies. Kavita Vedhara, health psychologist studying mind–body links and immunity, on how mood can change vaccine responses. They explore heartbeat awareness, neural pathways, training interoception with simple practices, risks of overfocusing, and a quirky 15-minute comedy trick to boost vaccine effectiveness.
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Interoception Shapes Emotions And Survival
- Interoception is how the brain senses and interprets signals from the body, shaping feelings like safety and anxiety.
- Optimal interoception means noticing internal signals, acting, then returning to external focus rather than staying hypervigilant.
Too Much Internal Focus Can Harm
- People vary widely in how well they detect internal bodily signals, and too much focus can worsen anxiety.
- The ideal is moderate tuning: notice sensations, address them, then return attention outward.
Insula Integrates Body Signals And Predictions
- The insula in the brain integrates bottom-up bodily signals with the brain's predictions to create interoception.
- Interoception is a trainable skill involving spinal, vagal, and hormonal pathways converging in the insula.
