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Attenuated interoceptive sensitivity in overweight and obese individuals
Since there have been suggestions that interoception (perception of bodily signals) and interoceptive sensitivity (sensitivity for internal signals) might play crucial roles when it comes to regulation of behavior associated with feelings of satiety, Herbert & Pollatos (2014) examined interoceptive sensitivity among 75 overweight and obese women and men (using a heartbeat detection task) and compared them to normal weight controls. The hypothesis before the initiation of the study that overweight and obese would be related to attenuated interoceptive sensitivity was proved right, with evidently higher scores seen for those normal weight participants compared to overweight + obese. In addition, a negative correlation was identified between the BMI and interoceptive sensitivity in the overweight and obese groups only. In the conclusion section, Herbert and Pollatos (2014) writes that presumably, interoceptive sensitivity interacts with the regulation of food intake in everyday life in part by promoting the detection of bodily changes accompanying satiety, the signals of which may be poorly detected by overweight and obese individuals. [NPID: interoception, interoceptive awareness, interoceptive sensitivity, heartbeat detection task, obesity, satiety]
Year: 2014
