Perception of bodily states in fibromyalgia

: is cognitive functioning related to interoception?

Abstract

Interoception is currently defined as the conscious and unconscious perception of internal bodily states. Researchers and clinicians have been struggling to fully understand its meaning and how to measure it, thus the investigation on this topic is not yet fully established. It has been suggested that in chronic pain conditions, such as Fibromyalgia, disruption of the interoceptive pathway may contribute to changes in body awareness and some subjective symptoms that these individuals, who experienced long-term pain, complain. Fibromyalgia individuals are also known to have cognitive impairment. Recent studies on interoception suggest that interoception is related to cognitive processes. Based on this knowledge it was hypothesized a relationship between cognitive functioning in Fibromyalgia and Interoception. Thus, the aim of the current study was to investigate perception of body states in Fibromyalgia, more specifically, Interoceptive Accuracy and Interoceptive Sensibility and its relationship with cognitive functioning in Fibromyalgia. Twenty-nine FM patients were recruited.They were assessed with heartbeat detection task, Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) and neuropsychological memory and attention task,i.e. Digit Span test and Stroop Task. Psychological and Fibromyalgia clinical characteristics were also assessed. The results showed that the individuals less accuratein interoception heartbeat detection task have poorer cognitive performance in short term memory and cognitive inhibition. Furthermore, increased self-reported ability to regulate body signals was related to a decreased working memory performance. These results suggest the importance of distinguishing the different dimensions of interoception and to discriminate the cognitive resources needed to interoception, as well as the cognitive impact of interoceptive symptom monitoring in chronic pain populations. Due to its possible clinical implications, we believe that this may be an area of interoception research that deserves deepen study in the future.

Date of Award	30 Jul 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Rita Canaipa (Supervisor) & Roi Treister (Co-Supervisor)