Preliminary evidence for context-dependent modulation of interoceptive signals in social evaluation

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Psychophysiology

Background:

• Interoception, the brain's processing of internal bodily signals, is crucial for linking the body and mind.
• It is unclear whether interoceptive processing is automatic or context-dependent.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if interoceptive neural signals are modulated by the evaluative context.
• To compare interoceptive processing during social (trustworthiness) versus perceptual (symmetry) face evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Utilized heartbeat-evoked potentials (HEPs) and skin conductance responses (SCRs).
• Employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for complementary analyses.
• Compared neural and physiological responses during trust and symmetry face evaluation tasks.

Main Results:

• HEPs differentiated trustworthy from untrustworthy faces specifically during trust evaluation, not symmetry evaluation.
• Larger SCRs were observed for untrustworthy faces during trust evaluations.
• Trial-by-trial associations between HEPs and SCRs suggested a link between bodily arousal and interoceptive processing in social contexts.
• fMRI revealed differential activation in the precuneus during trust evaluation.

Conclusions:

• Interoceptive neural and autonomic signals appear to be modulated by evaluative context.
• These signals become more pronounced when individuals explicitly judge social meaning.
• Findings suggest context-dependent modulation of interoception during social-affective evaluations.