Interoception, Trait Anxiety, and the Gut Microbiome: A Cognitive and Physiological Model

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Gastroenterology

Background:

• Trait anxiety is a persistent, often subconscious, state influencing daily life.
• Interoception involves perceiving internal bodily sensations, including autonomic nervous system activity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a predictive model for the development, presentation, and persistence of trait anxiety.
• To integrate interoceptive, exteroceptive, and proprioceptive sensory inputs within a cognitive framework for anxiety.

Main Methods:

• Review and synthesis of existing literature on trait anxiety and interoception.
• Development of a predictive cognitive model for trait anxiety.
• Illustration of the model using gut microbial dysbiosis as a case study.

Main Results:

• Anxiety states are hypothesized to arise from active interoceptive inference, triggering autonomic responses to aversive sensory encounters.
• Repeated exposure to subliminal anxiety cues may lead to overgeneralization of responses to non-aversive stimuli.
• Uncertainty in sensory prediction can result in arbitrary interoceptive anxiety responses, impacting confidence and maintaining anxiety traits.

Conclusions:

• The proposed model offers a framework for understanding trait anxiety through sensory processing and prediction errors.
• The model highlights the potential role of overgeneralized sensory responses and uncertainty in maintaining anxiety.
• Gut microbial dysbiosis serves as an example illustrating the model's application in explaining anxiety manifestations.