Enteroception is the sense of stretch or pain arising from the viscera.

Sensory receptors present in the viscera are activated in response to dilation, to contraction or spasm (colic), and to chemical irritation. These sensations are usually perceived as unpleasant or painful, and when the affected organ is in the abdominal cavity, they are often accompanied by reflex contraction of the abdominal muscles and cessation of abdominal breathing.

Referred pain, although important in human medicine, is of unknown significance in animals. The most widely known example in humans is the pain referred to the presternal region, neck, shoulders, and inner aspect of the left arm in humans with angina pectoris, a lack of oxygen to the heart tissue due to an inadequate blood supply. Afferent fibers arising from receptors in the viscera travel in the same spinal cord pathways as somatic sensory fibers innervating those cutaneous regions, which develop at the same embryologic level. It is thought that the predominance of somatic fibers in these spinal pathways is in part responsible for the incorrect perception that activity in visceral receptors is pain is arising instead in nearby somatic tissues.