The relationship between interoception and agency and its modulation by heartbeats: an exploratory study

Abstract

Interoception, the sense of the internal physiological state of the body, theoretically underpins aspects of self-representation. Experimental studies link feelings of body ownership to interoceptive perception, yet few studies have tested for association between the sense of agency and interoceptive processing. Here, we combined an intentional binding paradigm with cardiac measures of interoceptive processing (behavioural performance on a heartbeat discrimination task, and effects of timing within the cardiac cycle) in twenty-six non-clinical participants as an exploratory study. We found performance accuracy on the heartbeat discrimination task correlated positively with the intentional binding effect, an index of sense of agency (β = 0.832, p = 0.005), even after controlling for effects of age, sex, educational level, heart rate, heart rate variability and time accuracy. The intentional binding effect was enhanced during cardiac systole (compared to diastole) in individuals with greater heartbeat discrimination accuracy (β = 0.640, p = 0.047). These findings support the proposal that interoception contributes to mechanisms underlying the emergence of sense of agency.

Cardiac afferent signals can facilitate visual dominance in binocular rivalry

“…Interestingly, the faciliatory effect we see on visual dominance does not appear to depend on conscious access to one’s heartbeat sensations, as removing subjects who are above-chance at discriminating which stimulus is synchronized to their heartbeat from our sample does not eliminate the effect. Many effects of cardiac timing on perception and cognition are modulated by conscious interoceptive accuracy or awareness (Koreki et al, 2022; Sel et al, 2017), so it would be interesting to test whether interoceptive awareness potentiates the effect further. However, since we only had a handful of subjects in our sample that we could confidently conclude were above-chance heartbeat perceivers, this study cannot answer such a question with any statistical certainty.…”

Incels, autism, and hopelessness: affective incorporation of online interaction as a challenge for phenomenological psychopathology

“…In addition, several studies suggest a “significant relationship between autistic traits and indices of negative body image” ( Longhurst, 2023 , 9). In sum, findings on interoception difficulties in autistic people, on negative body image in autism, and research indicating a negative correlation between interoceptive awareness and self-objectification ( Ainley and Tsakiris, 2013 ; Dimas et al, 2021 ) culminate in the hypothesis that a constantly evoked negative body image reduces the sense of agency ( Koreki et al, 2022 ). Such a reduced sense of agency, in turn, speaks to a bodily felt dimension of hopelessness.…”

Assessment of Cognitive Behavioral Characteristics in Intelligent Systems with Predictive Ability and Computing Power

“…Despite the use of terminology that primarily implies living agents, such a structure can (and in many cases should) also characterize AI agents. The current focus on research on agency and self-awareness [79], in our opinion, is also closely related to anticipation, including when brain activity is modulated by internal signaling [80,81]. In this context, we can talk about intelligent systems in which there are other components that are different from the conventional "main" or "central brain", which, interacting with each other, give the system the very qualities of "hypercognition" that were discussed above.…”