Attending to body and mind: Does interoceptive attention compete with controlled and negative automatic thoughts?

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Psychophysiology

Background:

• Interoceptive attention, the focus on physiological signals, is not fully understood in relation to internal thought processes.
• Limited research exists on whether attention to bodily signals and internal thoughts compete for attentional resources.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between interoceptive attention and attention to internal thoughts (automatic and controlled) at trait and state levels.
• To explore the role of trait anxiety in mediating the link between thought attention and interoceptive attention.

Main Methods:

• Two studies utilized trait-level measures of attention to thoughts and regression analyses.
• A novel monotonous responding task with attention probes assessed state-level attention allocation between thoughts, body signals, and task engagement.

Main Results:

• Negative automatic thoughts, not controlled thoughts, positively predicted trait interoceptive attention, a relationship mediated by trait anxiety.
• At the state level, attention to thoughts and body signals were inversely correlated in the moment, yet positively correlated over time.
• Trait anxiety showed potential to explain the positive correlation between sustained attention to thoughts and body signals.

Conclusions:

• Attention to internal thoughts and bodily signals may compete in the short term but can coexist over longer periods.
• Trait anxiety appears to be a significant factor influencing the relationship between different forms of internal attention.
• Further research is needed to fully elucidate the interplay between interoceptive attention, thought processes, and anxiety.