Questions

• How does the brain learn from internal bodily signals and transform physiological experiences into lasting memories that guide future behavior?

  Unlike external sensory feedback, the physiological consequences of an action often emerge after substantial delays. How does the brain associate the taste of a food with its nutritional value or harmful consequences experienced minutes or hours later? How are these associations encoded, consolidated, and retrieved to shape future food choices and motivation? Remarkably, certain forms of interoceptive learning can occur after a single experience and produce exceptionally persistent memories. What neural population dynamics, circuit architectures, and synaptic plasticity mechanisms support such efficient learning? Does learning from the body follow computational principles distinct from those underlying classical learning driven by external sensory cues?

• How does the brain use past physiological experiences to predict future bodily needs and coordinate behavior with internal organ function?

  Internal states such as hunger and thirst are not simply passive reflections of peripheral physiology; they are shaped by context, expectations, and prior experience. How do learning and memory influence the brain's representation and perception of bodily states? How does the brain integrate interoceptive signals with external sensory information to anticipate physiological demands and guide motivated behavior? Beyond behavioral decisions, can learned predictions actively regulate peripheral organ functions even before physiological changes occur? We seek to understand how bidirectional brain–body communication enables the nervous system to move beyond reactive homeostasis toward predictive, coordinated physiological regulation.

• How do disruptions in interoceptive learning and memory contribute to maladaptive behavior and disorders of bodily regulation?

  Many metabolic and psychiatric disorders involve a mismatch between physiological needs, subjective bodily perception, and behavioral responses. For example, individuals may experience persistent hunger despite adequate energy stores, or diminished appetite despite substantial nutritional deficits. Could these abnormalities arise, in part, from distorted learning about bodily signals, maladaptive physiological predictions, or failures to update previously acquired associations? How do alterations in the neural circuits supporting interoceptive learning reshape appetite, food-related motivation, and the perception of bodily needs? By investigating these mechanisms, we aim to provide new perspectives on obesity, anorexia nervosa, and related metabolic and psychiatric disorders.