The heartbeat counting task largely involves non-interoceptive processes: Evidence from both the original and an...

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• The heartbeat counting task (HCT) is a common method for assessing interoceptive accuracy (IAcc).
• Concerns exist regarding the validity of HCT and its derived IAcc scores.
• Non-interoceptive strategies may contaminate HCT performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the validity of the heartbeat counting task (HCT).
• To examine the influence of non-interoceptive signals on interoceptive accuracy (IAcc) measurements.
• To compare IAcc scores from the original HCT with an adapted version emphasizing perceptual feedback.

Main Methods:

• 123 healthy participants completed both the original HCT and an adapted version.
• The adapted HCT instructed participants to report only perceived heartbeats, avoiding non-interoceptive cues.
• Participant strategies for task completion were analyzed.

Main Results:

• In the original HCT, participants employed strategies including specific/diffuse heartbeat detection and heart rate estimation.
• IAcc scores in the adapted HCT were reduced by approximately 50% compared to the original task.
• Findings indicate significant contamination of HCT by non-interoceptive processes.

Conclusions:

• The standard heartbeat counting task (HCT) may not be a pure measure of interoceptive accuracy (IAcc).
• Non-interoceptive strategies significantly influence performance on the HCT.
• Further research is needed to refine interoception assessment methods.