1
|
Petzke TM, Köteles F, Pohl A, Witthöft M. Somatic symptom distress is not related to cardioceptive accuracy. J Psychosom Res 2024:111655. [PMID: 38609776 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2024.111655] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2024] [Revised: 03/25/2024] [Accepted: 04/01/2024] [Indexed: 04/14/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE (Cardiac) interoception was long considered a key mechanism behind symptom perception in persistent somatic symptoms (PSS). In this study, we aimed to extend earlier findings to clarify this potential interoceptive mechanisms of PSS. METHODS A cross-sectional sample of 251 participants (23.1% with self-reported functional somatic syndrome) completed a laboratory study with two cardioceptive accuracy tasks (Schandry task and a new cardiac signal detection task) and multiple questionnaires. Somatic symptom distress and associated constructs were assessed with the PHQ-15, as well as with a novel multidimensional questionnaire measure (HiTOP-SF1) derived from the somatoform spectrum of the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP). Correlations (frequentist and Bayesian) and structural equation modelling (SEM) helped further investigate the interplay between these variables. RESULTS There were no significant correlations between measures of interoception and somatic symptom distress. Self-report and behavioral cardioceptive accuracy measures did not correlate significantly. No significant covariances emerged between diagnostic tools and cardioceptive accuracy; Bayesian analyses supported the lack of association between interoception and symptom perception. CONCLUSIONS Cardiac interoception (specifically cardioceptive accuracy) unlikely represents a key mechanism in PSS etiology. We recommend investigating other factors in PSS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tara M Petzke
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Experimental Psychopathology, Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz, Wallstraße 3, 55122 Mainz, Germany.
| | - Ferenc Köteles
- Department of General Psychology and Methodology, Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Kálvin tér 9, 1091 Budapest, Hungary.
| | - Anna Pohl
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Cologne, Pohligstraße 1, 50969 Cologne, Germany.
| | - Michael Witthöft
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Experimental Psychopathology, Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz, Wallstraße 3, 55122 Mainz, Germany.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Todd J, Plans D, Lee MC, Bird JM, Morelli D, Cunningham A, Ponzo S, Murphy J, Bird G, Aspell JE. Heightened interoception in adults with fibromyalgia. Biol Psychol 2024; 186:108761. [PMID: 38309512 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108761] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2023] [Revised: 01/29/2024] [Accepted: 01/30/2024] [Indexed: 02/05/2024]
Abstract
Previous research suggests that the processing of internal body sensations (interoception) affects how we experience pain. Some evidence suggests that people with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) - a condition characterised by chronic pain and fatigue - may have altered interoceptive processing. However, extant findings are inconclusive, and some tasks previously used to measure interoception are of questionable validity. Here, we used an alternative measure - the Phase Adjustment Task (PAT) - to examine cardiac interoceptive accuracy in adults with FMS. We examined: (i) the tolerability of the PAT in an FMS sample (N = 154); (ii) if there are differences in facets of interoception (PAT performance, PAT-related confidence, and scores on the Private Body Consciousness Scale) between an FMS sample and an age- and gender-matched pain-free sample (N = 94); and (iii) if subgroups of participants with FMS are identifiable according to interoceptive accuracy levels. We found the PAT was tolerable in the FMS sample, with additional task breaks and a recommended hand posture. The FMS sample were more likely to be classified as 'interoceptive' on the PAT, and had significantly higher self-reported interoception compared to the pain-free sample. Within the FMS sample, we identified a subgroup who demonstrated very strong evidence of being interoceptive, and concurrently had lower fibromyalgia symptom impact (although the effect size was small). Conversely, self-reported interoception was positively correlated with FMS symptom severity and impact. Overall, interoception may be an important factor to consider in understanding and managing FMS symptoms. We recommend future longitudinal work to better understand associations between fluctuating FMS symptoms and interoception.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Todd
- School of Psychology and Sport Science, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Centre for Psychological Medicine, Perdana University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
| | - David Plans
- Department of Management, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom; Huma Therapeutics Ltd, London, United Kingdom; Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Michael C Lee
- Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Jonathan M Bird
- Department of Management, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
| | - Davide Morelli
- Department of Engineering Science, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | | | - Sonia Ponzo
- Huma Therapeutics Ltd, London, United Kingdom
| | - Jennifer Murphy
- Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, United Kingdom
| | - Geoffrey Bird
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
| | - Jane E Aspell
- School of Psychology and Sport Science, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Santos LER, Elsangedy HM, de Souza CFCXM, da Silva Mesquita BM, Brietzke C, Vinícius Í, Pereira DC, Pires FO, Santos TM. Reliability of the Heartbeat Tracking Task to Assess Interoception. Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback 2022; 48:171-178. [PMID: 36564611 DOI: 10.1007/s10484-022-09574-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/03/2022] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Interoception refers to the competence in perceiving and interpreting internal sensations emerging from the body. The most common approach to assess interoception is through cardiac interoceptive tests like the heartbeat tracking task (HTT), which measures the accuracy on perceive and counting heartbeats during a period. However, the literature is scarce in providing adequate reliability evidence for this measure so that the interoception assessment may be threaten. In addition to HTT accuracy, it is possible to determine sensibility (self-reported confidence) and interoceptive awareness (correspondence between accuracy and sensibility). Thus, we measured the test-retest reliability of HTT and also investigated the behavior of HTT outcomes along the task. Therefore, 31 healthy adults (16 males) with 27.8 (9.4) years old performed two consecutive HTT interspersed by one day. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), standard error of measurement (SEM) and minimal detectable difference (MD) analyzes showed 'Good' relative reliability for interoceptive accuracy (ICC = 0.880; SEM = 0.263; MD = 0.728; p < 0.001) and 'Moderate' for sensibility (ICC = 0.617; SEM = 0.648; MD = 1.797; p < 0.001) and awareness (ICC = 0.593; SEM = 0.227; MD = 0.628; p < 0.001). The absolute reliability shows low threshold values for observing true effects in HTT outcomes. The results also showed that reducing the number of HTT blocks did not impact the outcomes. The HTT showed to be reliable in determine the interoceptive competences in healthy adults.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Cayque Brietzke
- Exercise Psychophysiology Research Group, School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
- Human Movement Science and Rehabilitation Program, Federal University of São Paulo, Santos, Brazil
| | - Ítalo Vinícius
- Exercise Psychophysiology Research Group, School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | | | - Flávio Oliveira Pires
- Exercise Psychophysiology Research Group, School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Tony Meireles Santos
- Grad Program in Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil.
- Physical Education Department, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Young HA, Freegard G, Benton D. Mediterranean Diet, Interoception and Mental Health: Is it time to look beyond the 'Gut-Brain Axis'? Physiol Behav 2022;:113964. [PMID: 36130628 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2022.113964] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2022] [Revised: 09/13/2022] [Accepted: 09/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE A Mediterranean style diet (i.e., high in fruit, vegetables, fish, pulses, and wholegrains) is said to benefit psychological health. Many low-level interoceptive processes, such as those involved in the 'gut-brain' axis, are suggested to play a mechanistic role in in this relationship. However, interoceptive sensations in other domains, and at higher hierarchical levels of abstraction, have hitherto been overlooked. One domain often studied in relation to psychological health is cardioception. Therefore, we examined whether the Mediterranean diet was associated with first-order perceptual and second-order metacognitive cardioception. METHODS Participants completed the Heartbeat Detection Task, the Heartbeat Counting Task, and the EPIC-Norfolk Food Frequency Questionnaire from which diet was quantified. RESULTS Adherence to a Mediterranean style diet was associated with higher cardioceptive accuracy (i.e., perceptual performance) across both tasks. In addition, those consuming a Mediterranean diet had a better ability to detect errors in first order perceptual performance, and a lower prediction error (the magnitude of the difference between accuracy and confidence). DISCUSSION These findings indicated that deepening our understanding of how interoceptive processes beyond the 'gut-brain' axis are shaped by diet could deepen our understanding of the link between diet and mental health and wellbeing.
Collapse
|
5
|
Plans D, Ponzo S, Morelli D, Cairo M, Ring C, Keating CT, Cunningham AC, Catmur C, Murphy J, Bird G. Measuring interoception: The phase adjustment task. Biol Psychol 2021; 165:108171. [PMID: 34411620 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2021] [Revised: 08/10/2021] [Accepted: 08/12/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
Interoception, perception of one's bodily state, has been associated with mental health and socio-emotional processes. However, several interoception tasks are of questionable validity, meaning associations between interoception and other variables require confirmation with new measures. Here we describe the novel, smartphone-based Phase Adjustment Task (PAT). Tones are presented at the participant's heart rate, but out of phase with heartbeats. Participants adjust the phase relationship between tones and heartbeats until they are synchronous. Data from 124 participants indicates variance in performance across participants which is not affected by physiological or strategic confounds. Associations between interoception and anxiety, depression and stress were not significant. Weak associations between interoception and mental health variables may be a consequence of testing a non-clinical sample. A second study revealed PAT performance to be moderately stable over one week, consistent with state effects on interoception.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- D Plans
- INDEX Group, Department of Science, Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship, University of Exeter, United Kingdom; Huma Therapeutics Ltd, London, United Kingdom; Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
| | - S Ponzo
- Huma Therapeutics Ltd, London, United Kingdom.
| | - D Morelli
- Huma Therapeutics Ltd, London, United Kingdom; Department of Engineering Science, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - M Cairo
- Huma Therapeutics Ltd, London, United Kingdom
| | - C Ring
- School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
| | - C T Keating
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
| | | | - C Catmur
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, United Kingdom
| | - J Murphy
- Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - G Bird
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Abrams K, Cieslowski K, Johnson S, Krimmel S, La Rosa GBD, Barton K, Silverman P. The effects of alcohol on heartbeat perception: Implications for anxiety. Addict Behav 2018; 79:151-158. [PMID: 29291505 DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.12.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2017] [Revised: 12/14/2017] [Accepted: 12/19/2017] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION It is well established that some individuals self-medicate their anxiety with alcohol. Though much evidence exists that alcohol consumption can be negatively reinforcing, there remains uncertainty regarding what mediates the relationship between alcohol and anxiety. An unexplored possibility is that, for some, alcohol impairs interoceptive sensitivity (the ability to accurately perceive one's physiological state), thereby decreasing state anxiety. Consistent with this, highly accurate heartbeat perception is a risk factor both for elevated trait anxiety and anxiety disorders. However, the direct impact of alcohol on cardioceptive accuracy has not to our knowledge been previously examined. METHODS Sixty-one social drinkers came to the lab in groups of 4-6 on two days spaced a week apart. Each participant was randomly assigned to receive alcoholic drinks targeting a BAC of 0.05% on one testing day and placebo drinks on the other, with the order counter-balanced. On both testing days, participants engaged in a Schandry heartbeat perception task on three occasions: at baseline, after an alcohol absorption period, and after physiological arousal was raised via exercise. RESULTS For men only, alcohol significantly impaired cardioceptive accuracy relative to a placebo at both low and high levels of arousal, with medium to large effect sizes. CONCLUSIONS Though preliminary, this finding is consistent with the proposed hypothesis linking alcohol consumption and anxiety, at least for men. Future studies should directly examine whether, among individuals with anxiety disorders, cardioceptive sensitivity mediates the relationship between alcohol consumption and state anxiety.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kenneth Abrams
- Department of Psychology, Carleton College, United States.
| | | | - Stacey Johnson
- Department of Psychology, Carleton College, United States
| | - Sam Krimmel
- Department of Psychology, Carleton College, United States
| | | | - Kirstie Barton
- Department of Psychology, Carleton College, United States
| | | |
Collapse
|