Relationship between interoceptive accuracy, interoceptive sensibility, and alexithymia

Zamariola, Giorgia [UCL] Vlemincx, Elke [UCL] Corneille, Olivier [UCL] Luminet, Olivier [UCL]

Interoception is the ability to feel one's internal bodily sensations and it is related to emotional experience and the processing of emotional stimuli. Alexithymia is defined by difficulties in identifying and describing one's emotions and externally oriented thinking. Additionally, it is linked to impairments in emotional awareness and the regulation of emotions. It is largely assumed that alexithymia relates negatively both to subjective and objective interoception. However, evidence is scarce for the latter relation. The relationship between Interoceptive Accuracy (IAcc, as measured with the heartbeat tracking task), Interoceptive Sensibility (IS, self-report measure of interoception assessed via questionnaires), and alexithymia (i.e., TAS-20) was examined across ten studies (total N = 998). Results showed a weak negative correlation between alexithymia and IS but no correlation between alexithymia and IAcc.