We Have a 'Sixth Sense' That Is Key to Our Wellbeing, But Only if We Listen to It

We Have a ‘Sixth Sense’ That Is Key to Our Wellbeing, But Only if We Listen to It

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Most people are familiar with the five senses (touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste), but not everyone knows that we have an additional sense called interoception.

This is the sense of our body’s internal state. It helps us feel and interpret internal signals that regulate vital functions in our body, like hunger, thirst, body temperature, and heart rate.

Although we don’t take much notice of it, it’s an extremely important sense as it ensures that every system in the body is working optimally.

It does this by alerting us to when our body may be out of balance – such as making us reach for a drink when we feel thirsty or telling us to take our jumper off when we’re feeling too hot.

Interoception is also important for our mental health. This is because it contributes to many psychological processes - including decision making, social ability, and emotional wellbeing.

Disrupted interoception is even reported in many mental health conditions – including depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. It may also explain why many mental health conditions share similar symptoms – such as disturbed sleep or fatigue.

Despite how important interoception is to all aspects of our health, little is known about whether men and women differ in how accurately they sense their body’s internal signals.

So far, studies that have investigated whether cisgender men and women (a person whose gender identity aligns with their biological sex) sense and interpret interoceptive signals from their heart, lungs, and stomach differently have found mixed results. Finding out if differences exist is important, as it may improve our understanding of differences in mental and physical health.

To get a clearer picture, we combined data from 93 studies looking at interoception in men and women. We focused on studies that looked at how people perceive heart, lung, and stomach signals across a range of different tasks.

For example, some studies had participants count their heart beats, while others asked participants to determine whether a flashing light happened when their stomach contracted, or tested if they could detect a difference in their breath while breathing into a device that makes it more difficult to do so normally.

Our analysis found that interoception does in fact differ between men and women. Women were significantly less accurate at heart-focused tasks (and to some extent lung-focused tasks) compared with men. These differences do not seem to be explained by other factors – such as how hard participants tried during the task, or physiological differences, such as body weight or blood pressure.

Though we found significant differences across heartbeat tasks, results for other tasks were less clear. This might be because only a small proportion of studies have looked at lung and stomach perception. It might be too early to tell whether men and women differ in their perception of these signals.

Mental health

Our findings may be important for helping us understand why many common mental health conditions (such as anxiety and depression) are more prevalent in women than men from puberty onward.

Several theories have been proposed to explain this – such as genetics, hormones, personality, and exposure to stress or childhood adversity.

But because we know that interoception is important for wellbeing, it could be possible that differences in interoception may partly explain why more women suffer from anxiety and depression than men.

This is because difficulties with interoception can affect many areas, including emotional, social, and cognitive function, which are all known risk factors for many mental health conditions.

Knowing the differences in how men and women sense interoceptive signals may also be important for treating mental illness.

While new studies suggest improving interoception improves mental health, studies also suggest that men may use interoceptive signals – for example from their heart – more than women when processing their emotions.

Other differences have also been reported, with studies suggesting that women pay more attention to interoceptive signals than men.

This could mean that treatments that target or seek to improve interoception may work better for some people, or that different techniques may work better for others. This is something future research will need to investigate.

But while we know these differences exist, we still don’t know what causes them. Researchers have a few theories, including the distinct physiological and hormonal changes most men and women experience. It may also be caused by differences in how many men and women are taught to think about their emotions or interoceptive signals, like pain.

Better understanding all the factors that affect interoceptive ability may be important for someday developing better treatments for many mental health conditions.

Jennifer Murphy, Lecturer in Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London and Freya Prentice, PhD Candidate at Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, UCL.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Haley Joel Osment Is Taking a Spin on ‘Celebrity Wheel of Fortune’

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But Haley has returned to the fore recently, especially with his roles on TV comedies like Silicon Valley, Future Man, The Kominsky Method, and What We Do in the Shadows.

He told The Guardian he feels like he’s “always building” on his childhood fame, adding, “I’m lucky to have a positive relationship with those periods that can sometimes be difficult for other people.”

Silver jeweler startup Giva raises $10 million from Sixth Sense, others

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Bengaluru-based silver jewellery startup Giva has raised $10 million (Rs 74.5 crore) in a Series-A funding round led by Sixth Sense Ventures , A91 Partners and other investors like India Quotient, Grand Anicut Angel Fund and Founder’s Bank Capital.The capital will help the company bolster its product development, introduce new categories, expand online and offline channels, as well as tap overseas markets, Giva said in a news release Thursday.“While most of the capital raised will be pumped into driving product development, Giva has laid out plans to venture into new product categories to appeal to a wider set of audiences with its range of 925 hallmarked pure sterling silver jewellery that is hypoallergenic,” the company said.Founded in 2019 by Ishendra Agarwal, Nikita Prasad and Sachin Shetty, Giva dispatches more than 35,000 parcels a month at present. It has so far invested Rs 24 crore into the business, including Rs 10 crore from investment firm India Quotient.“This funding round is a testament to the inroads made by Giva in the short span of time and reflects the immense growth potential available, driven by a tectonic shift in consumption patterns of Indian consumers favouring silver jewellery,” said Agarwal.“We have been apprehensive about the jewellery space in general given the offline demands of the gold segment … and challenges with respect to brand building for the fashion jewellery segment. However, we believe Giva has been able to crack the right mix of channel (online dominated), product (affordable silver jewellery, designed for the modern consumer) and customer engagement - addressing our fundamental concerns,” said Nkhil Vora, founder and CEO, Sixth Sense Ventures.

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Unloved cars and unconventional design from the 1980s and 1990s are life for photographer Mathilde Karrèr and interior designer Marick Baars. Having first met them at Flitzer Club, Błażej Żuławski heads back to Berlin to learn more about their impeccable taste for the ‘unobvious’

As I write these words in early 2022, the black 1986 W107 Mercedes 560 SL and the equally black 1993 Jaguar XJS you see here, as well as a 1992 W124 Mercedes 300CE, have all been sold to make way for an immaculate grey 1997 Alfa Romeo 164 Q4. But this ultimately doesn’t matter, as the machines are only testament to the impeccable taste and eye for ‘unobvious’ things that Mathilde Karrèr and Marick Baars possess – a trendsetting sixth sense that’s way ahead of the curve.

We first met a few summers ago, during one of Berlin’s notorious Flitzer Club weekend outings, and instantly became friends. Fast-forward through a few shared adventures and discussions to summer 2021 and we’re seeing each other, yet again in Berlin, at Bonanza Coffee Roasters, a recently opened establishment in the heart of Mitte, designed by Marick’s Modiste Studio.

They arrive separately. Mathilde in the black Jag with Count Gilbert Montgomery, their dachshund, as passenger. Marick alone, in a slightly “too cool for school” green 1994 Peugeot 106 Roland Garros. He, a graphic designer turned successful architect/interior decorator. She, a photographer, specialising in still-life pieces that create the most intricate and imaginative microverses imaginable. And although they’re both Dutch and hail from the same city – Rotterdam – their backgrounds are like chalk and cheese.

This discrepancy comes up when I try to take a picture of Mathilde’s watch – a gold Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. “Please don’t, it’s not very good, I did it myself,” she says, thinking that I’m actually aiming for the tattoo on her wrist. I try to explain, but before I have the chance, Mathilde elaborates. “I did it using a prison technique, back when I was squatting in Rotterdam”. The shock on my face is so visible that it elicits a quick response. “Oh, then I met him, and it turned out I’m much better at being a capitalist than an anarchist,” she admits, laughing.

Over a cup of coffee, while we admire the freeform shape of the hand-polished stainless-steel Bonanza bar, I ask about this first meeting. “In the early noughties, I really wanted to do flyers for clubs and parties,” Marick says, “but no club or party wanted to hire me. I come from a family that for generations was involved in shipping and was the first to try my hand at a creative job. So I had zero frame of reference. But I decided to solve this problem by creating a fake DJ-ing duo, who were ‘very famous abroad’ and organising a rave myself. I really knew nothing about DJ-ing, but the flyers were worth the risk.”

Mathilde, meanwhile, was “quite successfully squatting, building heating units, fixing the building’s plumbing, but also working various gig jobs in film and photo production and DJ-ing myself. So naturally, when I heard about these world-famous DJs from Rotterdam, I was curious – who were these people and what were they doing in my city?” Marick “had no idea that at the time she was the most famous DJ in Rotterdam!” He shrugs his shoulders and they both laugh.

Marick’s confidence in his abilities paid off. The scheme and flyers worked, so half the town showed up for what was an unforgettable night. Eventually – thanks to Mathilde – he got better at spinning (the couple later formed a duo called ‘Pavlov Disco’) and at the same time, his entrepreneurial spirit started to influence Mathilde, to the point that she no longer considered squatting a sustainable path for the future. “It was either that or she liked the Panhard PL-17 and 2CV I owned at the time,” he laughs. “Both were rustbuckets, so it’s unlikely!” she retorts.

Reminiscing complete, we jump into the cars to head towards Canal No2 on Linienstraße – another place designed by Modiste. As it’s late, its famous eclairs are sold out. But their shape is reflected in the elm timber panelling that encircles the marble countertop. Over ice cream, we reflect on the modern-day stop-and-go traffic that’s so unsuited to a 4.0-litre Big Cat, which only really feels at home on the open road at just below 3000rpm.

It comes as no surprise that anyone with a creative spirit and an eye for design can easily fall in love with various car shapes. Especially when those cars come from a time when design wasn’t so influenced by legislation. But even in these changing times, it’s still uncommon for women to be passionate about classic cars to the degree that Mathilde is. Solitary spirited driving over Alpine passes and long-distance adventures in often-unreliable machines are her bread and butter. Her last trip was to Switzerland in their 1986 Blue Medio Metallizzato Ferrari Mondial, which just before our meeting had sustained some minor ‘kamikaze deer’ damage. “It’s the first mint-condition car I’d ever bought, as before my curiosity had always trumped reason,” Marick says.

I ask about the source of Mathilde’s automotive passion. “Compared to Marick’s family, mine was always quite artistic,” she says. “My grandfather, Frits Rotgans, was a famous Dutch photographer, who built his own panoramic, large-format cameras. He loved machines and specialised in airport scenes. My dad was a sculptor. He did huge, monumental projects in wood, metal and glass, but was also a keen glider pilot. When he wasn’t allowed to fly anymore, he started building violins.” It’s not hard to see how a love of cars can spring from this lineage of creation, engineering, emotion, physics and freedom.

I can’t help but think that for Marick, design, art and interesting cars – not simply a way of getting from A to B, but which got him out of Rotterdam and into a world full of various experiences – counterbalanced an upbringing that expected him to follow a pre-ordained path. And for Mathilde, the same experiences, including those of automotive origin, were more of a natural extension of her heritage. Different paths, same result.

To see some of the discussed works, we drive to Schönberg. On the way to the apartment, Marick and I discuss the merits of a French city car in top spec. This 106, but also the Clio Baccara and the 205 Gentry. Cars that you can easily park in a crowded city, but which look equally good on the drive of a Schloss during a cocktail party. As I cross the threshold of their flat, I’m overwhelmed with the attention to detail, but also effortless cool with which it was furnished. The centrepiece of the living room is a gigantic, mesmerising, large-format picture of a forest, by none other than Mathilde’s grandfather. Opposite, there’s a striking wooden wall adornment, seemingly a sculpture, but actually a piece of a recording studio. The flowery, grandma-style sofa beneath is a neat counterpoint.

I run around photographing everything: a glass-encased wooden hand with pearls and crystals glued to it, a bust of a horse’s head, a half-molten disco ball, paintings by Mathilde’s mother and the odd model car. There are also brochures for the Ferrari. Overall, it’s a refreshing, eclectic, non-minimalistic, homey interior – very different to the slick, modernist-inspired Modiste projects. Equally impressive and cool, but in contrast to an Instagram-obsessed and Pinterest-formatted world, it doesn’t feel curated, just very relaxed.

As it gets dark, we take the US-spec SL from the garage to finish off the shoot at the stunning Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Overwhelmed by all I’ve heard and seen, I run out of ideas for pictures. “Let’s do one from above; I’ll hand Marick a Depeche Mode cassette, as if we were doing a shady drug deal!” says Mathilde. I run up the stairs of the overpass above to take the shot…

Text & Photos by Błażej Żuławski

Dogsee Chew raises Rs 50 cr in Series A from Mankind Pharma; Sixth Sense Ventures

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Bengaluru-based natural pet treat company Khanal Foods, which runs brands like Dogsee Chew and Himalyan Natives, said on Wednesday it has raised Rs 50 crore in a Series A round from Mankind Pharma along with existing investor VC fund Sixth Sense Ventures.

This marks Mankind Pharma’s entry into the pet food category. Sixth Sense Ventures had also earlier participated in the company’s pre-series A funding in November 2021.

Founded by the husband-wife duo Bhupendra Khanal and Sneh Sharma in 2015, the pet treat brand makes vegetarian dog treats that parallel rawhide bones. The company had in November, raised $7 million, in its Pre-Series A funding round from Sixth Sense Ventures.

Its treats, according to Bhupendra Khanal, are “natural, human-grade, and protein-rich, which have made them a success with pet parents”. He added it is now the country’s fourth largest pet food exporter and sends out its products to 30 countries.

“Mankind pharma has an established history of creating highly successful consumer products. Having the backing of such a giant is a huge vote of confidence for us and we look forward to learning from their expertise,” Khanal said. The investment will primarily be used towards brand building, research, and building a strong distribution network.

Arjun Juneja, chief operations officer of Mankind Pharma said, “The trust that people have shown in the brand has strengthened our confidence to invest in it. We have always believed in innovation and, with brands like ours that are innovative and young, we see the future of India.”

Nikhil Vora, Founder and CEO of Sixth Sense Ventures added, “With their 100% Natural & Vegetarian offerings, Dogsee Chew is uniquely positioned to make the most of the current global trends in the pet care industry.”

Sneh Sharma said Sixth Sense Ventures has been a great partner for the company. “We are excited to be deepening our partnership with this round. It speaks a lot about the trust and comfort we have established between us in such a short span of time,” she said.

In the past, brands like Heads Up For Tails, Wiggles and Supertails have raised funds. Heads Up For Tails, for instance, has raised $37 million in Series A in August last year while Wiggles raised $5.5 million in pre-series A round led by Anthill Ventures in October last year. Supertails raised $2.6 million and an additional undisclosed amount in a Pre-Series round in July last year.

According to research company Euromonitor International in 2021, pet food accounted for Rs 3143.03 crore of the market whereas pet products took Rs 558.96 of the pie. The industry was growing at 2016-2021 15% CAGR but is now projected to grow at 30% CAGR in 2021-2026.