Heart Rate and Insula Activity Increase in Response to Music in Individuals with High Interoceptive Sensitivity

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2024 Aug 22

PMID 39172913

Authors

Toru Maekawa

Takafumi Sasaoka

Toshio Inui

Alan S R Fermin

Shigeto Yamawaki

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Interoception plays an important role in emotion processing. However, the neurobiological substrates of the relationship between visceral responses and emotional experiences remain unclear. In the present study, we measured interoceptive sensitivity using the heartbeat discrimination task and investigated the effects of individual differences in interoceptive sensitivity on changes in pulse rate and insula activity in response to subjective emotional intensity. We found a positive correlation between heart rate and valence level when listening to music only in the high interoceptive sensitivity group. The valence level was also positively correlated with music-elicited anterior insula activity. Furthermore, a region of interest analysis of insula subregions revealed significant activity in the left dorsal dysgranular insula for individuals with high interoceptive sensitivity relative to individuals with low interoceptive sensitivity while listening to the high-valence music pieces. Our results suggest that individuals with high interoceptive sensitivity use their physiological responses to assess their emotional level when listening to music. In addition, insula activity may reflect the use of interoceptive signals to estimate emotions.

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