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Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Reducing State Anxiety Using Working Memory Maintenance
Published on: July 19, 2017
Interoceptive awareness, anxiety and cardiovascular reactivity to isometric exercise
Olga Pollatos1, Beate M Herbert, Christian Kaufmann
1Department of Psychology, LMU University, Munich, Germany. pollatos@psy.uni-muenchen.de
Abstract:
The present study was designed to investigate the relation between cardiovascular reactivity, trait anxiety and the interoceptive awareness. Eighteen male subjects underwent a heartbeat perception task and performed an isometric handgrip exercise. Subjects with high reactivity showed a higher degree of interoceptive awareness and trait anxiety suggesting that a habitually increased sympathetic outflow might be one variable contributing to the establishment of high interoceptive awareness and trait anxiety.
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