Embodied Interoception Questionnaire (Intero-10): Development, Validation, and Application in People With Neuropathic...

Embodied interoception refers to the perception of the body's state and is a multidimensional cognitive process. Pain experience feeds interoceptive networks with information from the state of the body and the subjective experience of pain would be influenced by an individual's trait embodied interoceptive profile.

Here we developed and validated the Intero-10, a questionnaire designed to evaluate embodied interoception based on trait interoceptive channels in healthy adults (n = 381) and latter assessed how it relates to neuropathic pain features (n = 86) as a pilot exploratory assessment. The relationship between trait and state interoceptive responses was examined during experimentally evoked interoceptive psychophysicsal tasks, specific to each interoceptive channel.

Trait and state interoceptive scores were correlated only for affective-emotional components (unpleasantness, p < 0.05), but not for intensity ratings, suggesting that the negative valence of momentary lived experience is more stable over time than intensity estimations. The Intero-10 final version included both embodied interoceptive perception intensity (heartbeat, heat, itching, dyspnea, sleep, muscle fatigue and anguish) and unpleasantness (heartbeat, dyspnea and nausea) domains. Intero-10 demonstrated adequate content validity, good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.81), good reliability (> 0.75) and a single-factor structure. Patients with neuropathic pain completed the Intero-10 alongside standard pain, mood, sleep and quality of life assessments. Embodied interoception scores correlated with mood and quality of life and partially mediated the correlation between pain interference and quality of life (β = -0.0093).

Specific assessment of embodied interoceptive channels may broaden our current assessment of people with chronic pain and of those at risk to develop it.

This study introduces the Embodied Interoception Questionnaire (Intero-10), a novel tool to assess how individuals perceive bodily states across distinct interoceptive channels. By capturing both sensory and affective dimensions of interoception, the instrument provides a structured approach to investigate trait-state relationships. Its application in neuropathic chronic pain offers preliminary evidence that embodied interoceptive experience can be systematically quantified, opening new avenues for understanding individual variability and for developing targeted interventions in pain management.