Visceroception A Borderline Sensory System

Abstract

If the reader were to consider that the preceding chapters had dealt exclusively with sensory phenomena other than visceroceptive ones—e.g., vision, audition, and, primarily, somatic sensory events—it would nonetheless be found that most if not all of the presumptions, results, and interpretations could be substituted by phenomena of the above-mentioned “classical” special senses. It has been clear from the very beginning of research in classical physiology and psychology of the special senses—i.e., from the initial achievements of such giants of sensory physiology as Helmholtz, Müller, and many others—that the fundamental laws of the special senses are common, in other words, that there has been and still is a reason for the existence of a general physiology of the special senses in research as well as in the curriculum of students in medicine, biology, and psychology. Most of the facts and concepts outlined above in the framework of visceral sensation and perception can and should be included in general physiology and even psychology.