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Cited by 27Psychosomatic Disorders and Their TreatmentsMental Health Research TopicsHeart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control

Listen to your heart-ecological momentary assessment of interoceptive accuracy, awareness and sensibility: a pilot study

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Höller, Inken, Stenzel, Jana-Sophie, Rath, Dajana, Forkmann, Thomas·2021·International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
DOI 10.3390/ijerph18094893PMC PMC8124337
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Abstract

Background: Interoception is a multi-facetted phenomenon including interoceptive accuracy, awareness and sensibility. Deficits in interoception have been associated with psychological distress. However, little is known about the course of interoception over time. The present study aimed at examining interoception in an ecological momentary assessment (EMA)-setting. Methods: A seven-day smartphone-based EMA was conducted in a community sample of sixty-one participants (age: M = 24.1, SD = 7.00, n = 54 female (88.5%)). To control for potential practice effects of repeated assessments during the EMA phase, participants were randomly assigned to a control (n = 30) and an interoception (n = 31) group. The latter was assessed for interoceptive accuracy, awareness and sensibility. Before and after the EMA phase, all participants were assessed for interoception in the laboratory. Results: Multilevel analyses revealed significant fluctuations for all three interoceptive facets, around 50% of variance was due to within-person variability. There were only practice effects for the subscale “Attention Regulation”, measuring interoceptive sensibility. Conclusion: The facets of interoception can be assessed in an EMA-setting. Repeated interoceptive assessments do not necessarily lead to an improvement of participants’ interoceptive abilities. It could be shown that all interoceptive facets fluctuate, which should be considered in future research.

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  • Ecological momentary assessment demonstrated that interoceptive accuracy, awareness, and sensibility fluctuate substantially within individuals over days, underscoring the need for repeated measurement when evaluating interoception-focused treatments.

    “Ecological momentary assessment demonstrated that interoceptive accuracy, awareness, and sensibility fluctuate substantially within individuals over days, underscoring the need for repeated measurement when evaluating interoception-focused treatments (Holler et al., 2021).”

    From Listen to your inner body: embodied emotions in predictive neuroscience and traditional East Asian medicine (2026) · cites this paper as Holler et al., 2021

    Split into 2 atoms — 1 confirmed, 1 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • A recent study showed that targeting interoception can alter symptom trajectories.

    “A recent study showed that targeting interoception can alter symptom trajectories.”

    From Listen to your inner body: embodied emotions in predictive neuroscience and traditional East Asian medicine (2026) · cites this paper as Holler et al., 2021

    The Discussion (§4.2; page unavailable) says training interoceptive skills could have a positive impact on depression and chronic worry, citing other studies. But this pilot study measured changes in interoceptive facets, not symptom trajectories, and presents the potential clinical benefit as tentative rather than a demonstrated result. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Authors
Höller, I., Stenzel, J.-S., Rath, D., & Forkmann, T.
Affiliations
University of Duisburg-Essen (DE)
Corresponding author
Höller, Inken
ORCID
Venue
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2021-05-04
Volume
18
Issue
9
Pages
4893
ISSN
1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/ijerph18094893
PMC
PMC8124337
OpenAlex
W3158493930
Cited by
27
References
18
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1
FWCI
2.51
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DuEPublico (University of Duisburg-Essen) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • Universitätsbibliographie, Universität Duisburg-Essen (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
Universität Duisburg-Essen
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
Keywords
interoception, interoceptive accuracy, interoceptive awareness, interoceptive sensibility, ecological momentary assessment, within-person variability, practice effects, attentional control, smartphone-based assessment, psychological distress
MeSH terms
Ecological Momentary Assessment, Attention, Awareness, Female, Heart Rate, Humans, Pilot Projects, Interoception

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