gastrointestinal and genitourinary systems common interoceptive sensations related to the gastrointestinal and genitourinary systems are hunger and fullness. these are homeostatic signals that tell an individual when to eat and when to stop eating. the dorsal mid-insula appears to be integral in taste processing during gastrointestinal interoceptive attention tasks. rectal and bladder distensions are used as a method to perturb the homeostatic environment of the gastrointestinal and genitourinary systems, using placement of balloon catheters which can be inflated to achieve different stimulus intensities. associative fear learning paradigms have been used to study how innocuous signals might lead to abnormal states of gastrointestinal hypersensitivity and anxiety. biofeedback therapy has been used for individuals with impaired gastrointestinal interoception, showing positive outcomes for some patients. nociceptive system nociception refers to the receiving and processing of pain inducing stimuli by the central nervous system. functional brain imaging studies during painful stimulation of the skin with heated probes, during mechanical compression, and electric shock have suggested that the insular cortex is prominently activated during pain processing. thus while pain was once thought of as an exteroceptive sensation, based on functional imaging and anatomical evidence it is now understood that it has an interoceptive component. thermoregulatory system temperature and pain are thought to be represented as "feelings" of coolness and warmness and pleasantness or unpleasantness in the brain. these sensory and affective characteristics of thermoregulation may motivate certain behavioral responses depending on the state of the body (for example, moving away from a source of heat to a cooler space). such perturbations in the internal homeostatic environment of an organism are thought to be key aspects of a motivational process giving rise to emotional states, and have been proposed to be represented principally by the insular cortex as feelings. these feelings then influence drives when the anterior cingulate cortex is activated. endocrine and immune systems the endocrine and immune systems are necessary body systems that aid in allostasis and homeostatic control. imbalances in these systems, along with other genetic and social factors, may be linked to interoceptive dysregulation in depression. these increased allostatic changes may cause a hyperawareness of interoceptive signaling and a hypo-awareness of exteroceptive signaling in depression patients. affective touch