Sixth Sense Mapping Project: Scientists Launch $14.2 Million Study
- A $14.2 million NIH grant will fund a collaborative effort to map the neural pathways responsible for sensing the body's internal state, perhaps revolutionizing our understanding of disease...
- How does your brain know when to take a breath, stabilize your blood pressure, or fight off an infection?
- Interoception isn't simply *feeling* your heartbeat; its the brain's complex interpretation of a vast array of signals originating from internal organs, immune cells, and metabolic processes.
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Unlocking the Body’s Internal World: A New Atlas of Interoception
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A $14.2 million NIH grant will fund a collaborative effort to map the neural pathways responsible for sensing the body’s internal state, perhaps revolutionizing our understanding of disease and treatment.
Last updated: 2025/10/25 21:32:31
What is Interoception?
How does your brain know when to take a breath, stabilize your blood pressure, or fight off an infection? The answer lies in interoception, a lesser-known process through which the nervous system constantly monitors the body’s internal signals to keep essential functions running.
Interoception isn’t simply *feeling* your heartbeat; its the brain’s complex interpretation of a vast array of signals originating from internal organs, immune cells, and metabolic processes. These signals provide crucial information about the body’s physiological condition, influencing everything from emotional states to decision-making.
A Major Investment in Brain-Body Research
Now, a collaborative team from Scripps Research and the Allen Institute has received the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Transformative Research award to develop the first comprehensive atlas of this internal sensory system. The NIH Director’s Transformative Research Awards support high-risk,high-reward projects with the potential to substantially advance biomedical science.
Leading the project is Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Ardem Patapoutian, joined by Li Ye, the N. Paul Whittier Chair in Chemistry and Chemical Biology at scripps Research, and Bosiljka Tasic, Director of Molecular Genetics at the Allen Institute. Xin Jin, Associate Professor at Scripps Research, will serve as co-investigator, directing the genomic and cell-type identification work.
The NIH has awarded the team $14.2 million over five years to carry out this ambitious project. This funding will support a multidisciplinary approach, combining expertise in neurobiology, genetics, and molecular biology.
“My team is honored that the NIH is supporting the kind of collaborative science needed to study such a complex system,” says Patapoutian, the Presidential Endowed Chair in Neurobiology at Scripps Research.
Patapoutian, who shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in physiology or Medicine for his discovery of cellular sensors that detect touch, will now apply his expertise to understanding interoception.
Why Interoception Matters: The Link to Disease
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