The process by which the nervous system continuously receives and interprets the body’s physiological signals to keep vital functions running smoothly, a "sixth sense" called interoception that tells your brain when you need to breathe, when your blood pressure declines or when you have an infection, is getting some star power; a Nobel laureate neuroscientist.

And an NIH grant.

Dr. Ardem Patapoutian received the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the cellular sensors of touch and has long been intrigued by interoception. It is often described as a “hidden sixth sense" because it is different than smell, sight and hearing, which rely on specialized sensory organs. interoception instead operates through neural pathways that monitor circulation, digestion and immune activity. They are often processed outside conscious awareness so less well understood than the five senses.

There are challenges to understanding it. Signals spread widely, often overlap and are difficult to isolate and measure. The neurons that carry these messages weave through tissues like heart and lungs to the stomach and kidneys without clear boundaries. The peoject hopes to build a comprehensive atlas that anatomically and molecularly catalogs these neural pathways. An anatomical component will label sensory neurons and use whole-body imaging to follow their paths from the spinal cord into different organs, creating 3_D map of the routes, while the molecular component will use genetic profiling to identify the cell types of sensory neurons.



This is pure basic research. By tackling interoception, they want to uncover core principles of body-brain communication that could guide new approaches to treating diseases that have been linked to misfiring interoceptive pathways has been implicated in conditions ranging from autoimmune disorders and chronic pain to neurodegeneration and high blood pressure.