Interoception, homeostatic emotions and sympathovagal balance

We briefly review the evidence for distinct neuroanatomical substrates that underlie interoception in humans, and we explain how they substantialize feelings from the body (in the insular cortex) that are conjoined with homeostatic motivations that guide adaptive behaviours (in the cingulate cortex). This hierarchical sensorimotor architecture coincides with the limbic cortical architecture that underlies emotions, and thus we regard...