Reference
How do you feel? Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body
Authors: A. D. Craig (2002)
A foundational paper explaining interoception as the sensing of the body’s internal physiological state.
The science behind InteroHR
Why interoception matters
Interoception is your ability to sense signals coming from inside your body, such as heart rate, breathing, tension, and internal activation.
InteroHR focuses on heart-rate awareness because it is concrete, measurable, and trainable. The app helps you compare what you feel with what is actually happening, then learn from that difference over time.
The short version
Better interoception can support self-awareness and regulation. InteroHR turns that idea into a practice by helping you estimate, observe, repeat, and recognize patterns rather than only passively view biometrics.
Awareness
Feel before you look
Pulse Check asks you to estimate your heart rate before revealing it. That moment of sensing is what builds awareness.
Calibration
Compare felt vs actual
Over time, InteroHR shows how close your felt sense is to reality and whether you are improving.
Regulation
Learn to downshift
Recovery work helps you see whether awareness can translate into more intentional settling and control.
What the app measures
By performing the Pulse Check excersize, users will be assesed an awareness score called Interoceptive Index based on the Core dimensions below.
Core dimensions
- Calibration: how close your estimate is to the actual value
- Bias: whether you tend to underestimate or overestimate
- Consistency: whether your awareness is stable across repeated sessions
- Context breadth: whether the skill carries across different situations
Why context matters
Awareness in one situation does not always transfer automatically to another. You may read your body well while resting, but less accurately under caffeine, after movement, or during recovery work.
InteroHR is designed to help make those differences visible, so training becomes more personalized and more meaningful.
Research & References
InteroHR is inspired by research on interoception, body awareness, and the relationship between internal signals, emotion, and self-regulation.
Reference
Interoceptive dimensions across cardiac and respiratory axes
Authors: Sarah N. Garfinkel et al. (2016)
This paper shows that interoception has multiple dimensions and can differ across types of bodily signals.
Reference
Interoception and emotion
Authors: Hugo D. Critchley and Sarah N. Garfinkel (2017)
A review describing how perception of internal body signals contributes to emotional experience and self-awareness.
Reference
Interoception and Mental Health: A Roadmap
Authors: Sahib S. Khalsa et al. (2018)
A broad review outlining how interoception is studied and why it matters in health and mental health research.
These references are provided for educational purposes and do not imply that InteroHR is a medical device or provides medical treatment.