Heartbeat perception in social anxiety before and during speech anticipation

Interoceptive sensitivity predicts sensitivity to the emotions of others

“…Questionnaires have revealed that individuals with high levels of Anxiety Sensitivity (AS), panic disorders or other anxietyrelated disorders are hyperaware of their bodily sensations (Anderson & Hope, 2009;Ludewig et al, 2005;Olatunji, Cisler, & Tolin, 2007). In addition, studies using the HDT have reported a close relationship between high levels of anxiety and high levels of sensitivity to one's own heartbeat (Dunn et al, 2010;Pollatos, Traut-Mattausch, Schroeder, & Schandry, 2007;Stevens et al, 2011). Based on these results, we hypothesise that excessive attention to one's internal bodily state and close connections with the emotional reappraisal process can lead to salient negative emotions and enhanced anxiety.…”

“…It is a well-known problem and is listed as a subtype of anxiety disorder in the DSM-V. Social anxiety disorder appears to be related to the biased processing of emotional information obtained from others (Joormann & Gotlib, 2006) as well as heightened self-focused attention in social situations (Clark & Wells, 1995;Stevens et al, 2011). Highly accurate interoceptive awareness, measured by the HDT, can be taken as evidence of self-focused attention in individuals with high levels of social anxiety (Domschke et al, 2010;Stevens et al, 2011). Highlighting this point, a recent clinical study reported on the effectiveness TERASAWA ET AL.…”

Emotional variability and sustained arousal during exposure

“…The procedure was identical to the Baseline BAT, except that the topic chosen for the 4 The belt was designed to increase interoceptive awareness as participants felt pressure around the abdomen and experienced difficulty taking a deep breath. There is evidence that socially anxious individuals perceive physical arousal accurately (Stevens et al, 2011) and that they exhibit an attentional bias toward cues of internal sources of potential threat (Pineles & Mineka, 2005). Thus, by increasing interoceptive awareness, it was expected that participants would accurately perceive heightened physiological arousal and that this arousal would provide evidence for a threat which would lead to heightened anxiety during the exposure task.…”

Interoceptive sensitivity facilitates both antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation strategies

“…Furthermore, although IS has been primarily linked to adaptive behaviour, research also revealed increased IS in clinical populations that are usually characterized by ineffective emotion regulation (i.e., panic disorder, social anxiety; Domschke et al, 2010;Stevens et al, 2011). Finally, even if the ERQ self-report is a valid and reliable measure of participant's tendency to use reappraisal and suppression strategies, it does not allow inferring the effectiveness of these strategies in participants' real life.…”