Abstract
Recently, interoception and homeostasis have been described in terms of predictive coding and active inference. Afferent signals update prior predictions about the state of the body, and stimulate the autonomic mediation of homeostasis. Performance on tests of interoceptive accuracy (IAc) may indicate an individual's ability to assign precision to interoceptive signals, thus determining the relative influence of ascending signals and the descending prior predictions. Accordingly, individuals with high IAc should be better able to regulate during the postprandial period. One hundred females were allocated to consume glucose, an artificially sweetened drink, water or no drink. Before, and 30 min after a drink, IAc, heart rate (HR) and blood glucose (BG) were measured, and participants rated their hunger, thirst and mood. A higher IAc was related to lower BG levels, a decline in anxiety and a higher HR, after consuming glucose. A higher IAc also resulted in a larger decline in hunger if they consumed either glucose or sucralose. These data support the role of active inference in interoception and homeostasis, and suggest that the ability to attend to interoceptive signals may be critical to the maintenance of physical and emotional health.
Highlights
Interoception, the perception and interpretation of visceral afferent signals, underpins homeostatic functioning [1], and is an essential component in many theories of emotion [1 –6]
Individuals who are more sensitive to interoceptive signals may (i) more readily engage innate autonomic reflexes in response to surprising interoceptive states, and (ii) be more proficient at learning the parameters of the models that predict interoceptive state transitions. Those with high interoceptive abilities may have stronger causal mappings between ascending prediction errors experienced in one sensory modality, and associated descending interoceptive predictions (e.g. an anticipated increase in blood glucose (BG)/gastric distension)
6 Taking interoceptive accuracy (IAc) as an index of the capacity to use attention to prioritize interoceptive signals [13], these findings suggest that high sensory precision may facilitate homeostatic and affective regulation during the post-prandial period
Summary
Interoception, the perception and interpretation of visceral afferent signals, underpins homeostatic functioning [1], and is an essential component in many theories of emotion [1 –6]. Individuals who are more sensitive to interoceptive signals may (i) more readily engage innate autonomic reflexes in response to surprising interoceptive states (e.g. the difference between the expected level of glucose and the currently sensed level), and (ii) be more proficient at learning the parameters of the models that predict interoceptive state transitions In other words, those with high interoceptive abilities may have stronger causal mappings between ascending prediction errors experienced in one sensory modality (e.g. tasting a sweet drink), and associated descending interoceptive predictions (e.g. an anticipated increase in blood glucose (BG)/gastric distension). IPEs awarded high precision are said to have privileged access to higher ( possibly conscious) levels of the cortical hierarchy [24] This potentially explains variability in the ability to consciously identify changes in glycaemia [25], a difference that has been related to the degree to which individuals experience associated subjective symptoms (e.g. hunger/mood) [26]. The design allowed us to infer the relative contribution of PE at different levels: humeral (a change in BG), gustatory (a sweet taste) and gastric (volume of liquid consumed) signals
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