A multi-site German validation of the Interoceptive Accuracy Scale and its relation to psychopathological symptom burden

Abstract

Altered interoception is thought to be implicated in the development of psychopathology. Recent proposals highlight the need to differentiate between dimensions of interoception to better understand its relation to mental health. Here, we validated a German version of the Interoceptive Accuracy Scale (IAS) and investigated the relationship between IAS scores and clinical outcomes, across seven samples from four research centers (N = 3462). The German IAS version was best explained by a one-factor structure that showed acceptable psychometric properties. We replicated previous findings showing a negative association between IAS scores and measures of alexithymia. IAS scores were negatively related to measures of clinical symptomatology (e.g., anxiety, depressive, and somatoform symptoms) and neurotic traits. These findings suggest that the German IAS is a reliable and valid instrument for subjective interoceptive accuracy. Results emphasize the importance of distinguishing between dimensions of interoception to understand its potential modulatory and protective role in psychopathology.

Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation modulates the processing of interoceptive prediction error signals and their role in allostatic regulation

“…The current findings are in line with predictive processing accounts of interoception and open new venues for the development of intervention programs focused on increasing interoceptive abilities that impact allostatic regulation (Weng et al, 2021 ). The latter is of particular importance given recent evidence that deficits in the precision with which interoceptive signals are detected are associated with a wide variety of clinical disorders (Brand et al, 2023 ; Smith et al, 2020 ; Smith et al, 2021 ; Ventura‐Bort, Wendt, & Weymar, 2021 ).…”

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“…One such proposal is the 2 x 2 factorial model of interoception, which distinguishes between interoceptive accuracy, understood as correctly perceiving the actual state of one's body, and interoceptive attention, defined as the degree to which a person attends or focuses on bodily changes. The distinction between self-reported interoceptive accuracy (assessed with the Interoceptive Accuracy Scale, IAS; [23]) and attention (measured with the Interoceptive Attention Scale, IATS; [24]) has been confirmed in recent studies showing that these two constructs are differentially associated with clinical outcomes, including anxiety, depression, alexithymia or somatoform symptomatology [25,26]. Interestingly, the most used questionnaires of interoception, as identified by Desmedt et al [15], were created before the new proposals of interoception emerged.…”

“…This project emerged as a part of a broader multi-site collaboration [25,26]. Data collection from most sites (https://aspredicted.org/K2L_8TW) and data analysis for the current project were preregistered (https://aspredicted.org/HC1_D39).…”

“…Data is available via OSF server (https://osf.io/6s2qf/). Data for the current project was used in other publications [25,26,34].…”

“…Interoceptive Accuracy Scale (IAS). The IAS was created to measure interoceptive accuracy within the 2 x 2 factorial model of interoception [23,25]. The questionnaire consists of 21 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale.…”