Interoception and respiratory sinus arrhythmia in gambling disorder

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychophysiology
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Gambling is associated with physiological arousal, but interoception and parasympathetic functioning in gambling disorder remain under-researched.
• Prior studies have not examined gamblers' ability to detect internal physiological signals or parasympathetic markers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate interoception and parasympathetic functioning in individuals with gambling disorder.
• To compare heartbeat detection and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) between individuals with and without gambling disorder.

Main Methods:

• A case-control study comparing 50 individuals with gambling disorder to 35 controls.
• Interoception assessed via self-report and a heartbeat counting task.
• Resting state electrocardiogram used to measure RSA as a proxy for parasympathetic control.

Main Results:

• No significant differences were found in self-report or behavioral measures of interoception between groups.
• Individuals with gambling disorder showed reduced RSA, indicative of lower parasympathetic control.
• Group differences in RSA were no longer significant after controlling for age and smoking status.

Conclusions:

• Findings do not support alterations in interoceptive processing in gambling disorder under resting conditions.
• Smoking behavior significantly influences heart rate variability, highlighting the need to control for nicotine use in future research on physiological functioning and emotional regulation in gambling disorder.