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The practice of meditation is not associated with improved interoceptive awareness of the heartbeat.

ABSTRACT: Meditation is commonly assumed to be associated with enhanced interoceptive accuracy. We previously found that experienced meditators did not exhibit a greater ability than nonmeditators to detect heartbeat sensations at rest, despite the meditators' reported subjective ratings of higher accuracy and lower difficulty. Here, attempting to overcome previous methodological limitations, we assessed interoceptive awareness of heartbeat and breathing sensations across physiological arousal levels using infusions of isoproterenol, a beta-adrenergic agonist similar to adrenaline. We hypothesized that meditators would display greater interoceptive awareness than nonmeditators, as evidenced by higher interoceptive detection rates, increased interoceptive accuracy, and differences in localization of heartbeat sensations. We studied 15 meditators and 15 nonmeditators, individually matched on age, gender, and body mass index, using randomized, double-blinded, and placebo-controlled bolus infusions of isoproterenol. Participants reported their experience of heartbeat and breathing sensations using a dial during infusions and the location of heartbeat sensations on a two-dimensional manikin afterward. There was no evidence of higher detection rates or increased accuracy across any dose, although meditators showed a tendency to report cardiorespiratory sensation changes sooner at higher doses. Relative to nonmeditators, meditators exhibited prominent geographical differences in heartbeat localization, disproportionally reporting sensations throughout central regions of the chest, abdomen, neck, back, and head. To further assess indications of potential differences in cardiac interoceptive accuracy between meditators and nonmeditators, we conducted a meta-analysis including 724 participants and found little evidence for such differences. We conclude that the practice of meditation is not associated with improved cardiac interoceptive awareness.

SUBMITTER: Khalsa SS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6982546 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The practice of meditation is not associated with improved interoceptive awareness of the heartbeat.

Khalsa Sahib S SS Rudrauf David D Hassanpour Mahlega S MS Davidson Richard J RJ Tranel Daniel D

Psychophysiology 20191001 2

Meditation is commonly assumed to be associated with enhanced interoceptive accuracy. We previously found that experienced meditators did not exhibit a greater ability than nonmeditators to detect heartbeat sensations at rest, despite the meditators' reported subjective ratings of higher accuracy and lower difficulty. Here, attempting to overcome previous methodological limitations, we assessed interoceptive awareness of heartbeat and breathing sensations across physiological arousal levels usin ...[more]

PMID: 31573689

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Project description:Interoceptive awareness (IA), the subjective and conscious perception of visceral and physiological signals from the body, has been associated with functions of cortical and subcortical neural systems involved in emotion control, mood and anxiety disorders. We recently hypothesized that IA and its contributions to mental health are realized by a brain interoception network (BIN) linking brain regions that receive ascending interoceptive information from the brainstem, such as the amygdala, insula and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). However, little evidence exists to support this hypothesis. In order to test this hypothesis, we used a publicly available dataset that contained both anatomical neuroimaging data and an objective measure of IA assessed with a heartbeat detection task. Whole-brain Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) was used to investigate the association of IA with gray matter volume (GMV) and the structural covariance network (SCN) of the amygdala, insula and ACC. The relationship between IA and mental health was investigated with questionnaires that assessed depressive symptoms and anxiety. We found a positive correlation between IA and state anxiety, but not with depressive symptoms. In the VBM analysis, only the GMV of the left anterior insula showed a positive association with IA. A similar association was observed between the parcellated GMV of the left dorsal agranular insula, located in the anterior insula, and IA. The SCN linking the right dorsal agranular insula with the left dorsal agranular insula and left hyper-granular insula were positively correlated with IA. No association between GMV or SCN and depressive symptoms or anxiety were observed. These findings revealed a previously unknown association between IA, insula volume and intra-insula SCNs. These results may support development of non-invasive neuroimaging interventions, e.g., neurofeedback, seeking to improve IA and to prevent development of mental health problems, such anxiety disorders.

Dataset Information

The practice of meditation is not associated with improved interoceptive awareness of the heartbeat.

Publications

The practice of meditation is not associated with improved interoceptive awareness of the heartbeat.

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