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Updated: Oct 23, 2025

Tilt Testing with Combined Lower Body Negative Pressure: a "Gold Standard" for Measuring Orthostatic Tolerance
Published on: March 21, 2013
On the construct validity of interoceptive accuracy based on heartbeat counting: Cardiovascular determinants of
André Schulz1, Sarah N Back2, Violetta K Schaan1
1Clinical Psychophysiology Laboratory, Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
Abstract:
Interoceptive accuracy (IAcc) as assessed with the heartbeat counting task (IAccHBCT) may be affected by a range of factors including (1.) the ability to adequately detect cardiac signals, indicated by IAcc in a heartbeat discrimination task (IAccHBDT), (2.) cardiac signal properties, affected by sympathetic and parasympathetic tone, and (3.) non-interoceptive processes, including time estimation accuracy (TEAcc). In the current study we investigated the contribution of these factors to absolute and Δ IAccHBCT scores, induced by passive head-up and head-down tilt in 49 healthy individuals. A set of hierarchical regression models showed IAccHBDT scores as the strongest and, across different orthostatic (tilt) conditions, most stable (positive) predictor of absolute and Δ IAccHBCT scores. Neither indicators of cardiac signal properties (except for HR in head-down-tilt), nor TEAcc predicted absolute or Δ IAccHBCT scores. These findings support the convergent and discriminant validity of absolute and Δ IAccHBCT scores.
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