Using a man who has an external pump which is helping his own heart beat whilst he waits for a transplant, neuroscientists explore the ways in which we detect our own heartbeat.
Neuroscientists think we detect our own heart-beats via two routes – one is "somatosensory"; that is, we feel the movement of the heart's beat in our skin and this information is processed in the part of the brain that deals with touch. The other route is "vagal", based on fibres that feed directly from receptors in the heart to the brainstem and then onto two brain areas known to be vital for IA: the insular cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex.
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Neuroscience lessons in body awareness from the man with two hearts
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