When the brain does not adequately feel the body: Links between low resilience and interoception

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Psychophysiology

Background:

• Resilience is crucial for adapting to stress.
• Interoception, the sense of the body's internal state, plays a role in emotional regulation.
• Neural mechanisms underlying resilience during interoceptive challenges are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural processes of resilience during aversive interoceptive challenges.
• To examine the relationship between resilience levels, interoceptive awareness, and brain activation patterns.

Main Methods:

• Forty-six participants were categorized into low, normal, and high resilience groups using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale.
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed during a loaded breathing task.
• Self-reported interoceptive awareness was assessed.

Main Results:

• Low resilience individuals reported lower interoceptive awareness.
• The low resilience group showed greater insular and thalamic activation during anticipation and experience of loaded breathing compared to other groups.
• A mismatch between attention to and neural processing of interoceptive signals was observed in low resilience individuals.

Conclusions:

• Lower resilience is associated with reduced attention to bodily signals but amplified neural processing of aversive interoceptive stimuli.
• This neural-attentional disconnect may contribute to maladaptation in stressful situations.
• Findings highlight the complex interplay between resilience, interoception, and neural processing in stress adaptation.