ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses three methods to investigate interoceptive signals (i.e., heart rate, breathing and electrodermal activity) and their correlation with brain activity (i.e., cognitive functions) within experimental settings. Each section starts with a general introduction to each method, including a brief note on how the method has been developed. Then its strengths and weaknesses in light of questions about the embodiment of cognition are reported. This is followed by a description of possible applications and settings, including integration with other methods and their suitability for different populations.
A key idea in embodied cognition is that signals from the entire body continuously influence our cognitive activity. Thus, contrary to the traditional notion of the mind as an encapsulated module in the brain (see Chapter 1), cognitive scientists now acknowledge that our heart beats, breathing movements and even signals from internal organs such as the gut, contribute to high-level decision-making and action selection by feeding signals from the periphery along the vagus nerve into the brain. Together, these influences are referred to as interoceptive signals.
