Interoception

The sense of the internal state of the body, including perception of heartbeat, breathing, hunger, thirst, temperature, pain, and emotional feelings. Interoception enables people to recognize and respond to their physiological and emotional states. Differences in interoception are common among autistic individuals and those with other neurodevelopmental conditions, which can affect emotional self-awareness and self-regulation. In accessibility research, interoceptive differences are important when designing systems that rely on self-reported emotional states, as physiological measures may provide more reliable data for users with atypical interoception.