Researchers working on the study of the mind and consciousness have been slowly realizing that we must look beyond the brain to the body and the environment we live in. Coming to this realization, however, leaves us with the question of how to include the body and the environment in our study of consciousness. My research aims to answer this question, more specifically with relation to the body. I seek to explain how our body shapes our conscious life. My view is that our mental life isn’t separable from our bodily existence, but rather that our mind is embodied in a way that requires us to look at how the body functions to explain why it is that we experience the world as we do. More specifically, I urge us to turn inside and look at the visceral body, the inner environment and its dynamic — what is called interoception. My research in this area is framed by 3 main questions: 

1. What is Interoception?

How to define it?

How does it connect with other bodily systems?

How does it connet to our conscious mental life?

Can we measure it?

How do we integrate findings across disciplines studying interoception in varying ways?

2. How does interoception affect our perceptual experience?

We know that interoception affects perception, but how does it do so? 

Does it add novel features to the perceptual experience?

Is interoception part of the multisensory integration process, and if so, how?

Is interoception a distinct sense modality?

Does interoception change how we should think about perceptual justification?

3. How does Interoception affect our cognition?

Does interoception have a causal effect on cognition? (I think yes)

If so, what effect does it have?

What does this mean for thinking about cognition as embodied?