Embodied Singing: Dual Role of Interoception in Vocal Expertise and Musical Competence

Musical expertise is often associated with heightened perceptual sensitivity to external sensory stimuli, yet its relationship with internal bodily awareness (interoception) remains elusive. This study examined whether interoceptive ability relates differentially to varying levels of singing expertise and investigated if interoception could predispose individuals to musical skills. Professional singers, amateur singers, and nonsingers completed a heartbeat discrimination task (interoceptive accuracy; IAcc), self-reported interoceptive sensibility assessment, and comprehensive musical competence measures. Results demonstrated a significant positive association between singing expertise and IAcc, which emerged only in professional singers, who significantly outperformed both amateur singers and nonsingers. Regression analyses indicated a moderate predictive role of accumulated singing practice for IAcc among trained singers, with exploratory mediation suggesting emotional awareness may partly account for this relationship. Critically, higher IAcc in nonsingers significantly correlated with superior singing accuracy, suggesting enhanced interoception may facilitate singing competence independently of formal vocal training. Altogether, these findings highlight a dual role of interoception, linking it to expert-level singing-partially mediated by emotional awareness-and independently to musical competence in nonsingers. These results reconcile prior inconsistencies by highlighting the embodied nature of singing and the distinct role of musical expertise, while underscoring inherent musically relevant mechanisms beyond practice alone.