Abstract
Interoceptive sensitivity (IS) is a biologically determined, constitutional trait of an individual. High IS has been often associated with proneness to anxiety. This association has been explained by elevated autonomic responsiveness in anxious individuals. However, in a heartbeat discrimination task (discrimination of heartbeats’ simultaneity to an external stimulus) low cardiac responsiveness has accompanied enhanced performance. The relation between these factors seems task dependent, and cannot comprehensively explain the link between IS and anxiety. We explored for additional explanatory factors for this link. More specifically, we studied which anxiety-related temperamental traits most strongly predict IS in the discrimination task. Compatibly with earlier findings, IS was positively associated with individual trait anxiety and also other related traits such as negative affect, emotional intensity, and introversion. Interestingly, behavioral inhibition was the temperamental trait that most strongly predicted high IS, and, in fact, accounted for its significant associations with the other anxiety-related temperamental traits. Good performance on heartbeat discrimination task may reflect adaptive attentional control abilities in behaviorally inhibited individuals. These results can improve our understanding of how IS and other traits together determine the personality and wellbeing of a human individual.
Highlights
Interoception conveys multimodal information from the entire body of a human individual, notably from his/her visceral and cutaneous sensory receptors (e.g., Cameron, 2002; Craig, 2014)
We selected the theoretically least redundant traits that were significantly associated with Interoceptive sensitivity (IS): Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ)-EI, Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP)-ANX, EIS-R and behavioral inhibition system (BIS) as predictors
The regression analysis indicates that BIS alone can best predict IS, and the prediction potential of the other variables is probably due to shared variance with BIS
Summary
Interoception conveys multimodal information from the entire body of a human individual, notably from his/her visceral and cutaneous sensory receptors (e.g., Cameron, 2002; Craig, 2014). The central function of the interoceptive system is in maintaining an individual’s autonomic homeostasis and allostasis (Craig, 2002, 2003, 2009; Barrett et al, 2016; Kleckner et al, 2017). The regulation of the body by the interoceptive system operates non-consciously, but integrated sensory information about the general condition of the body reaches conscious and cortical levels. Processing of interoceptive information is integral to the central large-scale functional brain networks, the ‘salience network’ and the ‘default mode network’ (Kleckner et al, 2017). Interoception is suggested to play a critical role in both subjective wellbeing and processing of external stimuli
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