(PS7-85) Facets of interoception and their prediction of psychopathology.

Abstract Text: Many forms of psychopathology, such as depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSDs), have been linked to interoception. Interoception refers to the ability to sense bodily signals, interpret them, and integrate them to inform one’s behavior and reactions. Interoception is considered to have three facets, including interoceptive sensibility (self-report), interoceptive accuracy (task-based), and interoceptive awareness (estimated performance on tasks). Literature suggests that elevated interoceptive awareness and accuracy are associated with higher generalized anxiety disorder symptoms while lower interoceptive sensibility is associated with major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and high schizotypy. Schizotypy constitutes sub-clinical traits of schizophrenia, and people with greater schizotypy traits are more likely to develop psychopathology. Though work has explored relationships between independent interoceptive facets and psychopathology, no study to date has examined how different facets of interoception combine to predict depression, anxiety, and schizotypal symptoms. This study aims to fill that gap. We hypothesize that better interoception will be associated with greater symptoms of anxiety and lesser symptoms of depression and schizotypy, across the three interoceptive domains. We further aim to explore which facet of interoception most strongly predicts psychopathology symptoms.
This study has been IRB-approved, and data collection is in progress with an expected recruitment of 85 participants (current n= 40). Undergraduate students attending a southeastern university are being recruited for this in-person study, which includes self-report measures of interoceptive sensibility, depression, anxiety, and schizotypy. Participants also complete the heart-beat counting task (HCT) while wearing Polar watches and belts. As part of this task, participants’ objective number of heartbeats will be compared to their perception of their heartbeats during specific time intervals. The HCT informs both interoceptive awareness and interoceptive accuracy. Partial correlations and hierarchal linear regressions between the 3 facets of interoception and 3 psychopathology measures will be analyzed using SPSS v29.
Results from this study will inform our understanding of how varied facets of interoception differentially contribute to psychiatric symptom presentation across three domains of symptoms. This could inform whether differential interoceptive interventions might be more or less effective for different types of psychopathology.