Being in Tune With Your Body: The Emergence of Interoceptive Processing Through Caregiver–Infant Feeding Interactions

Abstract

Interoception—the ability to perceive and respond to internal bodily sensations—is fundamental for the continuous regulation of physiological processes. Recently, it has been suggested that because infants depend completely on their caregivers for survival, the development of interoceptive processing emerges as a result of early dyadic interactions, and relies on caregivers’ ability to respond to and meet infants’ physiological needs. In this article, I examine how both caregivers’ and infants’ own characteristics contribute to the emergence and development of infants’ interoceptive processing. In particular, by focusing on feeding interactions, I suggest that infants build expectations about the cause of their internal sensations via a dynamic process of interoceptive distinction between self and other. This developmental account provides a framework that considers the complexity of early dyadic exchanges, and offers novel hypotheses for research investigating the mechanisms involved in the ontogeny of interoceptive processing and eating behaviors.