Name
Breakout Session 10C: Interoception: The 8th Sense
Date & Time
Thursday, July 27, 2023, 1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
Location Name
Room 205
Country of Submission
Australia
Description

Initial acknowledgement of the term Interoception was in the early 1900's by a Nobel-Prize-winning physician to refer to the feelings we get from our internal organs (Sherrington,1906) but it wasn't until 2002 that AD Bud Craig (neuroanatomist and neuroscientist) extended this sense to include the entire condition of the inner body.  These feelings include hunger and fullness, thirst, body temperature, heart and breathing rates, itch, muscle tension, nausea and sleepiness.  Within the field of Autism clinical practise, this sense has been well recognised and forms a strong basis for supporting sensory processing and integration.  The clinical practises within the deafblind field should include the knowledge of this 8th Sense to ensure that individuals with a more complex presentation are understood more fully. This presentation will include an introduction to the senses and the history and neuro anatomical functional imaging evidence to support the understanding of the 8th Sense.  In our clinical practise supporting individuals with deafblindness, are we missing the full understanding of the person's behaviour and the urge to act by not acknowledging the 8th Sense?