Abstract
Current empirical work suggests that early social experiences could have a substantial impact on the areas of the brain responsible for representation of the body. In this context, one aspect of functioning that may be particularly susceptible to social experiences is interoception. Interoceptive functioning has been linked to several areas of the brain which show protracted post-natal development, thus leaving a substantial window of opportunity for environmental input to impact the development of the interoceptive network. In this paper we report findings from two existing datasets showing significant relationships between attachment related processes and interoception. In the first study, looking at a sample of healthy young adults (n = 132, 66 males), we assessed self-reported interoceptive awareness as assessed with the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (Mehling et al., 2012) and attachment style as assessed with the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale-Short (Wei et al., 2007). We found relationships between aspects of interoception and attachment style such that avoidant individuals reported lower interoceptive functioning across several dimensions [r’s(130) = -0.20 to -0.26, p’s < 0.05]. More anxious individuals, on the other hand, reported heightened interoceptive across several dimensions [r’s(130) = 0.18 to 0.43, p’s < 0.05]. In the second study, we examined the congruence between a youth’s self-reported negative emotion and a measure of sympathetic nervous system arousal (SCL). The congruence score was positively associated with parental rejection of negative emotion. These results suggest that parenting style, as reported by the mother, are associated with a youth’s ability to coordinate their self-reported emotional and physiological responding across a series of independent assessments, r(108) = -0.24, p < 0.05. In other words, the more maternal reported parental rejection of youth negative emotions, the less congruent a youth’s self and physiological reports of distress.
Highlights
The Development of Interoceptive FunctioningInteroception refers to an individual’s ability to detect and track internal bodily cues (Garfinkel et al, 2015) and has been demonstrated to have important implications for psychological and physical health (Craig, 2004; Pollatos and Schandry, 2008; Paulus et al, 2009; Füstös et al, 2012; Herbert and Pollatos, 2014; Stern, 2014)
Correlations between the attachment style and self reported interoception indicated that individuals that score high in attachment anxiety tend to score high on the noticing scales, r(133) = 0.18, p < 0.05, and on the emotional awareness scale, r(133) = 0.18, p < 0.05
Recent work suggests that positive correlations between subjective and objective reports of arousal are associated with greater activity in the interoceptive network of the brain such that, the more congruence between a person’s selfreported emotional arousal and skin conductance level (SCL) activity, the better his interoception functioning may be (Kleckner et al, 2017)
Summary
The Development of Interoceptive FunctioningInteroception refers to an individual’s ability to detect and track internal bodily cues (Garfinkel et al, 2015) and has been demonstrated to have important implications for psychological and physical health (Craig, 2004; Pollatos and Schandry, 2008; Paulus et al, 2009; Füstös et al, 2012; Herbert and Pollatos, 2014; Stern, 2014). Bowlby (1982) posited that human infants develop attachment bonds with their caregivers These bonds are characterized by specific patterns of cognition and behavior in children that influence a range of functioning from emotion regulation to how they experience their close relationships (Fraley and Roisman, 2018). An infant that is “affectively attuned” with their caregiver (Stern, 1985) may develop stronger interoceptive abilities From this perspective, the development of interoception is a generative model wherein a caregiver’s actions combine with an infant’s perceptions of bodily cues and the origins of core subjective feelings such as hunger and satiation, cold and warmth are social not biological (Fotopoulou and Tsakiris, 2017)
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