Health, self-regulation of bodily signals and intelligence: Review and hypothesis

Childhood IQ and adult morbidity and mortality are known to be linked even beyond socioeconomic variables. Yet, their interrelations are insufficiently understood. It has been suggested that bodily sensations play a fundamental role in health-related self-regulation and that intelligence can influence the information processing of these somatic signals. This assumption is supported by reports on the influence of IQ on the exteroceptive (e.g. visual and auditory) and interoceptive (e.g. autonomic nervous system and posture) perception and processing of somatic information. Based on these findings the hypothesis of Psychosomatic Intelligence (PI) is introduced as an additional conceptual framework to probe the link between childhood IQ and adult health status. It implies a specific cognitive ability concerning the perception, interpretation, and self-regulation of bodily sensations. In this model, somatic signals are considered to reflect both intra-individual processes and individual-environment interactions. Based on this hypothesis the influence of intelligence on cognitive efforts to self-regulate somatic phenomena is amenable to systematic testing.