Brain responses and self-reported indices of interoception: Heartbeat evoked potentials are inversely associated with worrying about body sensations

Abstract

Interoception may be defined as a group of senses reflecting physiological state of the body; however the link between physiological and self-reported indices of interoception is not well established. We aimed to elucidate the relationship between the CNS representation of interoceptive processing - the late part of the heartbeat evoked potential (HEP) - and the self-reported interoceptive abilities and tendencies as assessed with the scales of Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) questionnaire. The HEP amplitudes at 400-600ms and MAIA scores from 30 healthy participants were subjected to the cluster-based permutation tests on the t-values of Pearson correlations. HEP amplitudes were positively associated with individual scores on the Not-Worrying scale of MAIA at Cz in the time window from 400ms to 545ms after the R peak. No other MAIA scales were related to the late HEP amplitudes, suggesting that scales and HEPs measure different aspects that are not directly interrelated. This supports the need to treat interoception as a multidimensional construct.

Keywords: Heartbeat evoked potential; Interoception; Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness.