Body awareness

Losing trust in body sensations: Interoceptive awareness and depression symptom severity among primary care patients.: Background: Interoceptive dysfunction is emerging as an important biomarker for mental illnesses, such as depression which is a leading cause of disability and death worldwide. Little empirical research explains the relationship between interoception and depression. Methods: Using multivariable linear regression models and cross-sectional baseline data from a randomized control trial of primary care patients (N = 281), we analyzed the relationship between depression severity (none/slight, mild,

Oxytocin Modulates Attention Switching Between Interoceptive Signals and External Social Cues.: Emotional experience involves an integrated interplay between processing of external emotional cues and interoceptive feedback, and this is impaired in a number of emotional disorders. The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) enhances the salience of external social cues but its influence on interoception is unknown. The present pharmaco-fMRI study therefore investigated whether OT enhances interoceptive awareness and if it influences the interplay between interoceptive and salience processing. In a rando

The relationship between heartbeat counting and heartbeat discrimination: A meta-analysis.: Interoception concerns the perception of the body's internal state. Despite the importance of this ability for health and aspects of higher-order cognition, its measurement remains problematic. Most studies of interoception employ one of two tasks: the heartbeat counting or heartbeat discrimination task. These tasks are thought to index common abilities, an assertion often used to justify the use of a single measure of cardiac interoception. However, mixed findings regarding the relationship bet

Change starts with the body: Interoceptive appreciation mediates the effect of mindfulness training on behavior change - an effect moderated by depression severity.: Mindfulness catalyzes health behavior change. Yet, interoception is dysregulated in depression, potentially impairing behavioral activation. We examined the mediating role of interoceptive appreciation, as measured by how much one trusts and listens to internal bodily signals, on behavior change. Primary care patients with depression, anxiety, or stress disorders related to chronic illness were randomized to Mindfulness Training for Primary Care (MTPC) using the Mindful Behavior Change curriculu

A meta-analysis on the relationship between interoceptive awareness and alexithymia: Distinguishing interoceptive accuracy and sensibility.: Alexithymia-a trait associated with difficulties understanding one's own emotions-is theorized to stem from deficits in interoceptive awareness, or the ability to detect, accurately monitor, and regulate internal bodily processes. The present meta-analysis analyzed all studies that empirically examined the relationship between alexithymia and interoceptive awareness. Across 66 independent samples (N = 7,146), alexithymia had a small, negative correlation with interoceptive awareness (r = -.162,

Sex differences in interoceptive accuracy: A meta-analysis.: Interoceptive accuracy, the ability to correctly perceive internal signals arising from the body, is thought to be disrupted in numerous mental and physical health conditions. Whilst evidence suggests poorer interoceptive accuracy in females compared to males, raising the possibility that interoceptive differences may relate to sex differences in mental and physical health, results concerning sex differences in interoceptive accuracy are mixed. Given such ambiguity, this meta-analysis aimed to e