Cited by 74Psychosomatic Disorders and Their TreatmentsDiversity and Impact of DanceHeart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control

I can feel my heartbeat: dancers have increased interoceptive accuracy

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Christensen, Julia F., Gaigg, Sebastian B., Calvo‐Merino, Beatriz·2018·Psychophysiology

Abstract

Interoception is the process of perceiving afferent signals arising from within the body including heart rate (HR), gastric signals, etc., and has been described as a mechanism crucially involved in the creation of self-awareness and selfhood. The heartbeat perception task is a tool to measure individuals' interoceptive accuracy (IAcc). IAcc correlates positively with measures of self-awareness and with attributes including emotional sensitivity, empathy, prosocial behavior, and efficient decision making. IAcc is only moderate in the general population, and attempts to identify groups of people who might have higher IAcc due to their specific training (e.g., yoga, meditation) have not been successful. However, a recent study with musicians suggests that those trained in the arts might exhibit high IAcc. Here, we tested IAcc in 20 professional dancers and 20 female control participants on a heartbeat perception task. Dancers had a higher IAcc, and this effect was independent of their lower heart rates (a proxy measure of physical fitness), counting ability, and knowledge about HR. An additional between-groups analysis after a median split in the dancer group (based on years of dance experience) showed that junior dancers' IAcc differed from controls, and senior dancers' IAcc was higher than both junior dancers and controls. General art experience correlated positively with IAcc. No correlations were found between IAcc and questionnaire measures of empathy, emotional experience, and alexithymia. These findings are discussed in the context of current theories of interoception and emotion-highlighting the features of arts training that might be related to IAcc.

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  • Some studies have not observed relationships between cardiac accuracy and alexithymia in either direction.

    “some studies have not observed relationships between cardiac accuracy and alexithymia in either direction using either the heartbeat counting task (e.g. Christensen et al., 2018; Nicholson et al., 2018, 2019; Zamariola et al., 2018)”

    From Atypical interoception as a common risk factor for psychopathology: A review (2021) · cites this paper as Christensen et al., 2018

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  1. Bagby, R. M., Parker, J. D. A., & Taylor, G. J. (1994b). The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale-I. Item selection and cross-validation of the factor structure. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 38, 23-32.
  2. Calvo-Merino, B., Grèzes, J., Glaser, D. E., Passingham, R. E. R., & Haggard, P. (2005). The influence of visual and motor familiarity during action observation: An fMRI study using expertise. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 115-115.
  3. Dunn, B. D., Galton, H. C., Morgan, R., Evans, D., Oliver, C., Meyer, M., . . . Dalgleish, T. (2010b). Listening to your heart. How interoception shapes emotion experience and intuitive decision making. Psychological Science, 21. doi:10.1177/0956797610389191 · DOI · Paper page
  4. Karin, J., Christensen, J. F., & Haggard, P. (Fall 2016, in press). Mental Training. In V. Wilmerding & D. Krasnow (Eds.), Dancer Wellness. Champaign Canada: Human Kinetics.
  5. Tsakiris, M., Tajadura-Jiménez, A., & Constantini, M. (2011). Just a heartbeat away from one's body: interoceptive sensitivity predicts malleability of body-representations. Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 1-6.

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Authors
Christensen, J. F., Gaigg, S. B., & Calvo‐Merino, B.
Affiliations
University of London (GB)
Corresponding author
Christensen, Julia F.
Venue
Psychophysiology
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2017-09-21
Volume
55
Issue
4
ISSN
  • 0048-5772 (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-8986
OpenAlex
W2753376928
Cited by
74
References
104
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1
FWCI
4.26
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Psychophysiology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • City Research Online (City University London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
British Academy (NF140935)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Diversity and Impact of Dance
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
Keywords
interoceptive accuracy, heartbeat perception, dancers, artistic training, heart rate, self-awareness, dance experience, emotional sensitivity, empathy, alexithymia
MeSH terms
Adult, Awareness, Dancing, Emotions, Female, Heart Rate, Humans, Self Concept, Young Adult, Interoception

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