TY - JOUR A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Kurz, Anne-Lene A1 - Albrecht, Jessica A1 - Schreder, Tatjana A1 - Kleemann, Anna Maria A1 - Schöpf, Veronika A1 - Kopietz, Rainer A1 - Wiesmann, Martin A1 - Schandry, Rainer T1 - Reduced perception of bodily signals in anorexia nervosa N2 - OBJECTIVE: Interoceptive awareness is known to be impaired in eating disorders. To date, it has remained unclear whether this variable is related to the construct of interoceptive sensitivity. Interoceptive sensitivity is considered to be an essential variable in emotional processes. The objective of the study was to elucidate this potential relationship and to clarify whether general interoceptive sensitivity is reduced in anorexia nervosa. METHODS: Using a heartbeat perception task, interoceptive sensitivity was assessed in 28 female patients with anorexia nervosa and 28 matched healthy controls. Questionnaires assessing interoceptive awareness (EDI) and several other variables were also administered. RESULTS: Patients with anorexia nervosa displayed significantly decreased interoceptive sensitivity. They also had more difficulties in interoceptive awareness. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to a decreased ability to recognize certain visceral sensations related to hunger, there is a generally reduced capacity to accurately perceive bodily signals in anorexia nervosa. This highlights the potential importance of interoceptive sensitivity in the pathogenesis of eating disorders. Y1 - 2008 SN - 1471-0153 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Herbert, Beate M. A1 - Schandry, Rainer A1 - Gramann, Klaus T1 - Impaired central processing of emotional faces in anorexia nervosa N2 - OBJECTIVES: To elucidate the potential relationship between classification of emotional faces and impaired central processing in eating disorders and to investigate the potential mediatory role of alexithymia and depression in this relationship. METHODS: Visual-evoked potentials (VEPs) to emotional faces and classification performance were assessed in 12 anorexic females and matched healthy controls. RESULTS: Patients with anorexia nervosa showed no modulation of emotional face processing and displayed significantly increased N200 amplitudes in response to all emotional categories and decreased VEPs in response to unpleasant emotional faces in the P300 time range as compared with healthy controls. They also made more mistakes in emotional face recognition, in particular, for neutral, sad, and disgusted content. CONCLUSIONS: There are marked differences in evoked potentials and emotion recognition performances of patients with anorexia nervosa and controls in facial processing. Differences in brain dynamics might contribute to difficulties in the correct recognition of facially expressed emotions, deficits in social functioning, and in turn the maintenance of eating disorders. Y1 - 2008 SN - 0033-3174 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kleemann, Anna Maria A1 - Kopietz, Rainer A1 - Albrecht, Jessica A1 - Schöpf, Veronika A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - May, Jana A1 - Linn, Jennifer A1 - Brückmann, Hartmut-Josef A1 - Wiesmann, Martin T1 - Investigation of breathing parameters during odor perception and olfactory imagery N2 - Compared with visual and auditory imagery, little is known about olfactory imagery. There is evidence that respiration may be altered by both olfactory perception and olfactory imagery. In order to investigate this relationship, breathing parameters (respiratory minute volume, respiratory amplitude, and breathing rate) in human subjects during olfactory perception and olfactory imagery were investigated. Fifty-six subjects having normal olfactory function were tested. Nasal respiration was measured using a respiratory pressure sensor. Using an experimental block design, we alternately presented odors or asked the subjects to imagine a given smell. Four different pleasant odors were used: banana, rose, coffee, and lemon odor. We detected a significant increase in respiratory minute volume between olfactory perception and the baseline condition as well as between olfactory imagery and baseline condition. Additionally we found significant differences in the respiratory amplitude between imagery and baseline condition and between odor and imagery condition. Differences in the breathing rate between olfactory perception, olfactory imagery, and baseline were not statistically significant. We conclude from our results that olfactory perception and olfactory imagery both have effects on the human respiratory profile and that these effects are based on a common underlying mechanism. Y1 - 2009 UR - http://chemse.oxfordjournals.org/ SN - 0379-864X ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schreder, Tatjana A1 - Albrecht, Jessica A1 - Kleemann, Anna Maria A1 - Kopietz, Rainer A1 - Anzinger, Andrea A1 - Demmel, Maria A1 - Linn, Jennifer A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Wiesmann, Martin A1 - Schoepf, Veronika T1 - Olfactory performance of patients with anorexia nervosa and healthy subjects in hunger and satiety N2 - The aim of this study was to compare the olfactory performance of anorectic patients and healthy controls with regard to the state of satiety. Using the Sniffin" Sticks, sensitivity to a nonfood odor (n-butanol) and to a food- related odor (isoamyl acetate) was assessed in 12 anorectic females and compared with 24 healthy controls. Threshold tests were performed in a hungry as well as in a satiated state, odor discrimination and odor identification only when satiated. Pleasantness of the odors was recorded. In terms of the non-food odor n-butanol, the olfactory sensitivity of anorectic patients and controls did not differ. Patients with anorexia nervosa had a significantly lower detection threshold for the food-related odor, but only in the hungry condition. Anorectic patients showed significant deficits in odor discrimination and identification, and under-evaluated the pleasantness of isoamyl acetate. Our results suggest an impaired projection from secondary to tertiary olfactory structures in anorexia nervosa, based upon the dichotomy of performance between detection threshold and odor discrimination/dentification. The reduced pleasantness of isoamyl acetate indicates a decreased olfactory responsiveness to food stimuli in anorexia nervosa. Y1 - 2008 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Füstös, Jürgen A1 - Gramann, Klaus A1 - Herbert, Beate M. A1 - Pollatos, Olga T1 - On the embodiment of emotion regulation - interoceptive awareness facilitates reappraisal JF - Frontiers in human neuroscience N2 - The ability to cognitively regulate emotional responses to aversive events is essential for mental and physical health. One prerequisite of successful emotion regulation is the awareness of emotional states, which in turn is associated with the awareness of bodily signals [interoceptive awareness (IA)]. This study investigated the neural dynamics of reappraisal of emotional responses in 28 participants who differed with respect to IA. Electroencephalography was used to characterize the time course of emotion regulation. We found that reappraisal was accompanied by reduced arousal and significant modulation of late neural responses. What is more, higher IA facilitated downregulation of affect and was associated with more pronounced modulation of underlying neural activity. Therefore, we conclude that IA not only advances the consolidation of somatic markers required for guiding individual behaviour but also creates processing advantages in tasks referring to these bodily markers. KW - interoception KW - interoceptive awareness KW - embodied cognition KW - emotion regulation KW - reappraisal KW - evoked potentials Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss089 SN - 1749-5016 SN - 1749-5024 VL - 8 IS - 8 SP - 911 EP - 917 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Herbert, B. A1 - Pollatos, Olga T1 - Interozeptive Sensitivität, Gefühle und Verhaltensregulation N2 - The processing of afferent bodily signals is not only of great importance for the control of homeostatic and adaptive processes within the body but, in combination with the perceptibility of internal, bodily reactions ("interoceptive sensitivity"), also influences the regulation of complex cognitive, emotional and behavioral processes. This review article outlines the theoretical basis of interoceptive sensititivity and illustrates recent neuroscientific research and results. Y1 - 2008 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Matthias, Ellen A1 - Schandry, R. A1 - Duschek, S. A1 - Pollatos, Olga T1 - On the relationship between interoceptive awareness and the attentional processing of visual stimuli N2 - Mental processes related to visceral activity have gained growing interest during the last few years. The following study is the first to investigate possible interactions between interoceptive awareness and measures of attentional performance. We tested the hypothesis whether interoceptive awareness is positively related to indices of selective and divided attentional performances. Using a heartbeat perception task, 29 healthy female participants were separated into two groups scoring either high or low in an interoceptive awareness task. Attentional performance was assessed by several tests including the 'd2 test of attention' and subtests from the 'TAP: Test Battery for Attentional Performance'. We observed a significantly better performance in selective and divided attention for participants with high interoceptive awareness. Our data suggests that interoceptive awareness is related to a better performance especially in tasks assessing selective and divided attention. We conclude 1) that perception of bodily states might be a crucial determinant for the processing of external, visual stimuli, 2) that the ability to perceive internal signals might be an indicator of self-focused attention, and 3) that bodily signals may use, at least in part, similar processing resources as signals from the attention system. Y1 - 2009 SN - 0167-8760 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Albrecht, Jessica A1 - Anzinger, Andrea A1 - Kopietz, Rainer A1 - Schöpf, Veronika A1 - Kleemann, Anna Maria A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Wiesmann, Martin T1 - Test-retest reliability of the olfactory detection threshold test of the Sniffin' Sticks N2 - The aim of the present study was to investigate the test-retest reliability of the olfactory detection threshold subtest of the Sniffin" Sticks test battery, if administered repeatedly on 4 time points. The detection threshold test was repeatedly conducted in 64 healthy subjects. On the first testing session, the threshold test was accomplished 3 times (T(1) = 0 min, T(2) = 35 min, and T(3) = 105 min), representing a short-term testing. A fourth threshold test was conducted on a second testing session (T(4) = 35.1 days after the first testing session), representing a long-term testing. The average scores for olfactory detection threshold for n-butanol did not differ significantly across the 4 points of time. The test-retest reliability (Pearson"s r) between the 4 time points of threshold testing were in a range of 0.43-0.85 (P < 0.01). These results support the notion that the olfactory detection threshold test is a highly reliable method for repeated olfactory testing, even if the test is repeated more than once per day and over a long-term period. It is concluded that the olfactory detection threshold test of the Sniffin" Sticks is suitable for repeated testing during experimental or clinical studies. Y1 - 2008 UR - http://chemse.oxfordjournals.org/ SN - 0379-864X ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Traut-Mattausch, Eva A1 - Schandry, Rainer T1 - Differential effects of anxiety and depression on interoceptive accuracy N2 - BACKGROUND: Feedback from the body is assumed to be altered in depression. Nevertheless, empirical studies investigating this assumed relationship remain sparse. This study aimed to examine interrelations between the ability to perceive heartbeats accurately (interoceptive awareness), depressive symptoms, and anxiety in healthy participants. METHODS: A well-validated heartbeat perception task to measure interoceptive awareness together with two questionnaires indexing anxiety and depression were administered to 119 participants. RESULTS: As main results we observed a negative correlation between heartbeat perception and depression. Only when focussing on high anxiety levels this negative correlation coefficient between depression and interoception remained significant. CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight the possible relationship between depressive symptoms and interoceptive awareness and may have further implications for theoretical models of anxiety disorders and their treatment. Further research is required to examine the potential consequences of altering interoceptive awareness in healthy subjects in relation to depression and anxiety. Y1 - 2009 UR - http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/38924 SN - 1091-4269 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Albrecht, Jessica A1 - Kopietz, Rainer A1 - Linn, Jennifer A1 - Sakar, Vehbi A1 - Anzinger, Andrea A1 - Schreder, Tatjana A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Brückmann, Hartmut-Josef A1 - Kobal, Gerd A1 - Wiesmann, Martin T1 - Activation of olfactory and trigeminal cortical areas following stimulation of the nasal mucosa with low concentrations of S(-)-nicotine vapor : an fMRI study on chemosensory perception N2 - Applied to the nasal mucosa in low concentrations, nicotine vapor evokes odorous sensations (mediated by the olfactory system) whereas at higher concentrations nicotine vapor additionally produces burning and stinging sensations in the nose (mediated by the trigeminal system). The objective of this study was to determine whether intranasal stimulation with suprathreshold concentrations of S(-)-nicotine vapor causes brain activation in olfactory cortical areas or if trigeminal cortical areas are also activated. Individual olfactory detection thresholds for S(-)-nicotine were determined in 19 healthy occasional smokers using a computer-controlled air-dilution olfactometer. Functional magnetic resonance images were acquired using a 1.5T MR scanner with applications of nicotine in concentrations at or just above the individual"s olfactory detection threshold. Subjects reliably perceived the stimuli as being odorous. Accordingly, activation of brain areas known to be involved in processing of olfactory stimuli was identified. Although most of the subjects never or only rarely observed a burning or painful sensation in the nose, brain areas associated with the processing of painful stimuli were activated in all subjects. This indicates that the olfactory and trigeminal systems are activated during perception of nicotine and it is not possible to completely separate olfactory from trigeminal effects by lowering the concentration of the applied nicotine. In conclusion, even at low concentrations that do not consistently lead to painful sensations, intranasally applied nicotine activates both the olfactory and the trigeminal system. Y1 - 2009 UR - http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/109668555 SN - 1065-9471 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Schubö, Anna A1 - Herbert, Beate M. A1 - Matthias, Ellen A1 - Schandry, Rainer T1 - Deficits in early emotional reactivity in alexithymia N2 - Abstract Alexithymia is characterized by a difficulty in identifying and describing one"s emotions. This study addressed the question of whether alexithymic tendencies are related to limited affective reactivity to briefly presented emotional stimuli. Skin conductance responses were assessed and backward masking was used to minimize elaborated processing of emotional pictures. Results indicated that alexithymic tendencies are associated with smaller electrodermal responses to briefly presented negative pictures. These effects were driven by difficulties in identifying and communicating emotions whereas externally orientated thinking was unrelated to affective reactivity. We conclude that there is an early processing deficit in response to negative stimuli in participants with high scores in alexithymia. Differences in the early emotional reactivity to arousing material could contribute to difficulties in emotional processes related to alexithymia. Y1 - 2008 UR - http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/issn?DESCRIPTOR=PRINTISSN&VALUE=0048-5772 SN - 0048-5772 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Schandry, Rainer T1 - Emotional processing and emotional memory are modulated by interoceptive awareness N2 - The ability to perceive interoceptive signals plays a central role in many theories of emotions. The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between interoceptive awareness and the conscious processing and memory of emotional information. Heart-rate changes were recorded during baseline and affective picture presentation in two groups of participants, differing in cardiac awareness. After a 60-minute break, a recognition task was conducted. Statistical analyses revealed significantly stronger heart-rate deceleration to pleasant and unpleasant stimuli in participants with high interoceptive awareness. In the subsequent picture recognition task, participants with high interoceptive awareness demonstrated a superior recall of pleasant and unpleasant pictures, while no differences were found between interoceptive awareness groups for pictures of neutral content. Our results demonstrate a strong relationship between the perception of cardiac signals and both the processing as well as the recognition of emotional stimuli. High interoceptive awareness was related to increased physiological responses to emotional stimuli and is therefore an important mediating variable when investigating cardiovascular reactivity both in healthy subjects as well as in clinical populations. Y1 - 2008 UR - http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=journal&issn=0269-9931 SN - 0269-9931 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Herbert, Beate M. A1 - Herbert, Cornelia A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Weimer, Katja A1 - Sauer, Helene A1 - Enck, Paul A1 - Zipfel, Stephan T1 - Effects of short-term food deprivation on interoceptive awareness, feelings and autonomic cardiac activity : implications for eating disorders N2 - Poster session abstracts. Poster 9 Y1 - 2010 UR - http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/issn?DESCRIPTOR=PRINTISSN&VALUE=0048-5772 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2010.01111.x SN - 0048-5772 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Werner, Natalie S. A1 - Duschek, Stefan A1 - Schandry, Rainer A1 - Matthias, Ellen A1 - Traut-Mattausch, Eva A1 - Herbert, Beate M. T1 - Differential effects of alexithymia subscales on autonomic reactivity and anxiety during social stress JF - Journal of psychosomatic research N2 - Objectives: Alexithymia is characterized by a difficulty in identifying and describing one's emotions. Recent research has associated differential effects of the alexithymia facets to hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis markers during stress. This study aimed to analyze how the facets of alexithymia interact with autonomic reactivity as well as self- and observer-rated anxiety during a social stress task. Methods: With the use of a public-speaking paradigm, skin conductance levels (SCLs) and heart rate (HR) during the defined periods of baseline, preparation, stress, and recovery were assessed in 60 volunteers (42 females, mean age 22.8) categorized as having either high (HDA) or low (LDA) degrees of alexithymia. Results: We found smaller SCLs during preparation and speech in the HDA group. Regression analyses indicated that only the alexithymia facet "difficulty in describing feelings" (DDF) was associated with smaller electrodermal responses. In the HDA group, self- and observer-rated anxiety was higher in the HDA than in the LDA group, which was attributable to higher scores in the subscales "difficulty in identifying feelings" (DIF) and "externally oriented thinking" (EOT). Conclusions: Our data support and specify the decoupling hypothesis of alexithymia by showing that the facets of alexithymia are differentially related to autonomic reactivity as well as self- and observer-rated anxiety during social stress. KW - Alexithymia KW - Autonomic response KW - Social stress KW - Skin conductance KW - Anxiety KW - Social performance KW - Decoupling hypothesis Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2010.12.003 SN - 0022-3999 VL - 70 IS - 6 SP - 525 EP - 533 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Koch, Anne A1 - Pollatos, Olga T1 - Interoceptive sensitivty, body weight and eating behavior in children: a prospective study JF - Frontiers in psychology KW - body weight KW - children KW - eating behavior KW - heartbeat perception KW - interoceptive sensitivity KW - overweight Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01003 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 5 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Nowozin, Claudia A1 - Wahnschaffe, A. A1 - Fay, Doris A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Kunz, D. T1 - Does bright light interfere with fear learning? T2 - Journal of sleep research : official journal of the European Sleep Research Society Y1 - 2014 SN - 0962-1105 SN - 1365-2869 VL - 23 SP - 102 EP - 102 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mai, Sandra A1 - Gramann, Klaus A1 - Herbert, Beate M. A1 - Friederich, Hans-Christoph A1 - Warschburger, Petra A1 - Pollatos, Olga T1 - Electrophysiological evidence for an attentional bias in processing body stimuli in bulimia nervosa JF - Biological psychology N2 - Empirical evidence suggests abnormalities in the processing of body stimuli in bulimia nervosa (BN). This study investigated central markers of processing body stimuli by means of event-related potentials in BN. EEG was recorded from 20 women with BN and 20 matched healthy controls while watching and evaluating underweight, normal and overweight female body pictures. Bulimics evaluated underweight bodies as less unpleasant and overweight bodies as bigger and more arousing. A higher P2 to overweight stimuli occurred in BN only. In contrast to controls, no N2 increase to underweight bodies was observed in BN. P3 was modulated by stimulus category only in healthy controls; late slow waves to underweight bodies were more pronounced in both groups. P2 amplitudes to overweight stimuli were correlated with drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction. We present novel support for altered perceptual and cognitive-affective processing of body images in BN on the subjective and electrophysiological level. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Bulimia nervosa KW - Body image KW - Body stimuli KW - ERP KW - P2 KW - Slow positive wave Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2015.03.013 SN - 0301-0511 SN - 1873-6246 VL - 108 SP - 105 EP - 114 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Laubrock, Jochen A1 - Wittmann, Marc T1 - Interoceptive focus shapes the experience of time JF - PLoS one N2 - The perception of time is a fundamental part of human experience. Recent research suggests that the experience of time emerges from emotional and interoceptive (bodily) states as processed in the insular cortex. Whether there is an interaction between the conscious awareness of interoceptive states and time distortions induced by emotions has rarely been investigated so far. We aimed to address this question by the use of a retrospective time estimation task comparing two groups of participants. One group had a focus on interoceptive states and one had a focus on exteroceptive information while watching film clips depicting fear, amusement and neutral content. Main results were that attention to interoceptive processes significantly affected subjective time experience. Fear was accompanied with subjective time dilation that was more pronounced in the group with interoceptive focus, while amusement led to a quicker passage of time which was also increased by interoceptive focus. We conclude that retrospective temporal distortions are directly influenced by attention to bodily responses. These effects might crucially interact with arousal levels. Sympathetic nervous system activation affecting memory build-up might be the decisive factor influencing retrospective time judgments. Our data substantially extend former research findings underscoring the relevance of interoception for the effects of emotional states on subjective time experience. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086934 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 9 IS - 1 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Herbert, Beate M. A1 - Muth, Eric R. A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Herbert, Cornelia T1 - Interoception across modalities on the relationship between cardiac awareness and the sensitivity for gastric functions JF - PLoS one N2 - The individual sensitivity for ones internal bodily signals ("interoceptive awareness'') has been shown to be of relevance for a broad range of cognitive and affective functions. Interoceptive awareness has been primarily assessed via measuring the sensitivity for ones cardiac signals ("cardiac awareness'') which can be non-invasively measured by heartbeat perception tasks. It is an open question whether cardiac awareness is related to the sensitivity for other bodily, visceral functions. This study investigated the relationship between cardiac awareness and the sensitivity for gastric functions in healthy female persons by using non-invasive methods. Heartbeat perception as a measure for cardiac awareness was assessed by a heartbeat tracking task and gastric sensitivity was assessed by a water load test. Gastric myoelectrical activity was measured by electrogastrography (EGG) and subjective feelings of fullness, valence, arousal and nausea were assessed. The results show that cardiac awareness was inversely correlated with ingested water volume and with normogastric activity after water load. However, persons with good and poor cardiac awareness did not differ in their subjective ratings of fullness, nausea and affective feelings after drinking. This suggests that good heartbeat perceivers ingested less water because they subjectively felt more intense signals of fullness during this lower amount of water intake compared to poor heartbeat perceivers who ingested more water until feeling the same signs of fullness. These findings demonstrate that cardiac awareness is related to greater sensitivity for gastric functions, suggesting that there is a general sensitivity for interoceptive processes across the gastric and cardiac modality. Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0036646 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 7 IS - 5 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Gramann, Klaus T1 - Attenuated modulation of brain activity accompanies emotion regulation deficits in alexithymia JF - Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research N2 - The personality trait alexithymia has been associated with deficits in emotion regulation; nevertheless, experimental investigations on this research question are sparse. We investigated reappraisal as one emotion regulation strategy in 44 healthy participants with high (HDA) versus low (LDA) degrees of alexithymia. High density EEG and spatiotemporal current density reconstruction were used to characterize the time course of emotion regulation and to identify brain regions involved. Main results were that reappraisal was accompanied by reduced arousal and significant amplitude reduction of P3 and slow wave in the LDA group only. In contrast to the LDA group, reappraisal was not associated with an increase of activation in fusiform gyrus and inferior temporal gyrus in the HDA group. We demonstrate profound deficits in emotion regulation, which might contribute to everyday problems of social functioning in alexithymia. KW - Alexithymia KW - Emotion regulation KW - Reappraisal KW - Evoked potentials KW - Current source density reconstruction Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01348.x SN - 0048-5772 VL - 49 IS - 5 SP - 651 EP - 658 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Fuestoes, Juergen A1 - Critchley, Hugo D. T1 - On the generalised embodiment of pain: how interoceptive sensitivity modulates cutaneous pain perception JF - Pain : journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain N2 - Individual differences in interoceptive sensitivity are associated with differences in reported intensity of emotional experience, vulnerability to anxiety and mood disorder and capacity for emotional self-regulation. Enhanced sensitivity to autonomic state is often accompanied by increased autonomic reactivity. Here we tested the hypothesis that healthy people classified as more interoceptively sensitive, by their performance of a heartbeat monitoring task, will demonstrate enhanced perception of pain. We further explored whether this effect is associated with a greater physiological reactivity to the pain stimuli. Using an algometer, cutaneous pressure pain was applied to the thenar eminence in 60 healthy participants. Heart rate variability and respiratory activity were recorded concurrently. We observed significant relationships between heightened interoceptive sensitivity and both enhanced sensitivity and decreased tolerance to pain. These effects were accompanied by a more pronounced parasympathetic decrease and a change in sympathovagal balance during pain assessment in the high, compared to the low, interoceptively sensitive group. Our study provides novel evidence that interoceptive sensitivity is associated with the experience and tolerability of pain in conjunction with reactive changes in autonomic balance. KW - Cutaneous pain perception KW - Embodiment KW - Insula KW - Interoception KW - Interoceptive sensitivity Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2012.04.030 SN - 0304-3959 VL - 153 IS - 8 SP - 1680 EP - 1686 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Gramann, Klaus T1 - Electrophysiological evidence of early processing deficits in alexithymia JF - Biological psychology N2 - Alexithymia describes difficulties to identify and describe one's emotions. Previous research focused on difficulties associated with the later processing stages of appraisal in alexithymia. We tested whether early processing deficits are apparent in alexithymic persons and whether these abnormalities contribute to later processing difficulties. 20 participants were selected and identified as either having high (HDA) or low (LDA) degrees of alexithymia. IAPS pictures were presented while EEG was recorded. For HDA subjects processing of emotional pictures was accompanied by reduced P1 amplitudes most pronounced for pleasant and neutral pictures. In response to unpleasant pictures the P3 amplitudes were reduced. These amplitude modulations were predicted only by one alexithymia facet. P1 amplitudes systematically covaried with P3 amplitudes supporting the assumption that deficits in early emotional processing contribute to later processing deficits. KW - Evoked potentials KW - Emotions KW - Alexithymia KW - Perceived arousal KW - Unpleasant stimuli KW - IAPS Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.02.016 SN - 0301-0511 VL - 87 IS - 1 SP - 113 EP - 121 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Herbert, Beate M. A1 - Pollatos, Olga T1 - The body in the mind On the relationship between interoception and embodiment JF - Topics in cognitive science N2 - The processing, representation, and perception of bodily signals (interoception) plays an important role for human behavior. Theories of embodied cognition hold that higher cognitive processes operate on perceptual symbols and that concept use involves reactivations of the sensory-motor states that occur during experience with the world. Similarly, activation of interoceptive representations and meta-representations of bodily signals supporting interoceptive awareness are profoundly associated with emotional experience and cognitive functions. This article gives an overview over present findings and models on interoception and mechanisms of embodiment and highlights its relevance for disorders that are suggested to represent a translation deficit of bodily states into subjective feelings and self-awareness. KW - Interoception KW - Interoceptive awareness KW - Emotions KW - Time perception KW - Disturbances of embodiment KW - Alexithymia KW - Eating disorder KW - Self Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-8765.2012.01189.x SN - 1756-8757 VL - 4 IS - 4 SP - 692 EP - 704 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Dietel, Anja A1 - Herbert, Beate M. A1 - Wankner, Sarah A1 - Wachsmuth, Cornelia A1 - Henningsen, Peter A1 - Sack, Martin T1 - Blunted autonomic reactivity and increased pain tolerance in somatoform patients JF - Pain : journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain N2 - Somatoform disorders are characterized by the presence of multiple somatic symptoms. Patients often experience different pain syndromes, and recent research suggests that sympathovagal balance is disturbed in somatoform patients, which could be related to alteration in pain sensitivity. This study analyzed how proposed sympathovagal imbalance interacts with objective pain assessment and the imagination of pain in somatoform disorders. Twenty-one patients (4 men) with diagnosed multisomatoform disorder were included in the study and matched to healthy control subjects. Autonomic measures and heart rate variability were assessed during baseline; pain perception was assessed by means of a pressure algometer and pain imagination. We found evidence for a sympathovagal imbalance in somatoform disorders characterized by low parasympathetic activation and high sympathetic activation during all conditions. Additionally, somatoform patients had reduced pain tolerance. Vagal withdrawal during pain assessment was more pronounced for healthy control subjects and correlated positively with assessed pain tolerance. During imagination somatoform, patients reported higher pain unpleasantness and higher pain intensity as compared to control subjects. We conclude that our data demonstrate an imbalance in sympathovagal activation and a hyposensitivity to pain tolerance stimuli in somatoform disorders. Parasympathetic reactivity might form crucial information when judging pain-associated affective-motivational components. Our results might be attributable to a deficient detection of visceral signals and might be a pathogenetic mechanism for the development of emotional difficulties and increased everyday vulnerability in somatoform patients. KW - Autonomic KW - Heart rate variability KW - Pain threshold KW - Pain tolerance KW - Response KW - Somatoform disorder KW - Sympathovagal balance Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2011.05.024 SN - 0304-3959 VL - 152 IS - 9 SP - 2157 EP - 2164 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kühnpast, Nicole A1 - Gramann, Klaus A1 - Pollatos, Olga T1 - Electrophysiologic evidence for multilevel deficits in emotional face processing in patients with Bulimia Nervosa JF - Psychosomatic medicine N2 - Background: Empirical evidence suggests substantial deficits regarding emotion recognition in bulimia nervosa (BN). The aim of the current study was to investigate electrophysiologic evidence for deficits in emotional face processing in patients with BN. Methods: Event-related potentials were recorded from 13 women with BN and 13 matched healthy controls while viewing neutral, happy, fearful, and angry facial expressions. Participants' recognition performance for emotional faces was tested in a subsequent categorization task. In addition, the degree of alexithymia, depression, and anxiety were assessed via questionnaires. Results: Categorization of emotional faces was hampered in BN (p = .01). Amplitudes of event-related potentials differed during emotional face processing: face-specific N170 amplitudes were less pronounced for angry faces in patients with BN (mean [M] [standard deviation {SD}] = 1.46 [0.56] mu V versus M [SD] = -1.23 [0.61] mu V, p = .02). In contrast, P3 amplitudes were more pronounced in patients with BN as compared with controls (M [SD] = 2.64 [0.46] mu V versus M [SD] = 1.25 [0.39] mu V, p = .04), independent of emotional expression. Conclusions: The study provides novel electrophysiologic data showing that emotional faces are processed differently in patients with BN as compared with healthy controls. We suggest that deficits in early automatic emotion classification in BN are followed by an increased allocation of attentional resources to compensate for those deficits. These findings might contribute to a better understanding of the impaired social functioning in BN. KW - eating disorders KW - bulimia nervosa KW - EEG KW - emotions KW - face recognition KW - N170 KW - N2 KW - P3 Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0b013e31825ca15a SN - 0033-3174 VL - 74 IS - 7 SP - 736 EP - 744 PB - Lippincott Williams & Wilkins CY - Philadelphia ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Fuestoes, Jürgen A1 - Critchley, Hugo T1 - On the generalized embodiment of pain how interoceptive sensitivitymodulates cutaneous pain perception T2 - Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research KW - Embodiment KW - Interoception Y1 - 2012 SN - 0048-5772 VL - 49 IS - 9 SP - S104 EP - S104 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Herbert, Beate M. A1 - Wankner, Sarah A1 - Dietel, Anja A1 - Wachsmuth, Cornelia A1 - Henningsen, Peter A1 - Sack, Martin T1 - Autonomic imbalance is associated with reduced facial recognition in somatoform disorders JF - Journal of psychosomatic research N2 - Objectives: Somatoform disorders are characterized by the presence of multiple somatic symptoms. While the accuracy of perceiving bodily signal (interoceptive awareness) is only sparely investigated in somatoform disorders, recent research has associated autonomic imbalance with cognitive and emotional difficulties in stress-related diseases. This study aimed to investigate how sympathovagal reactivity interacts with performance in recognizing emotions in faces (facial recognition task). Methods: Using a facial recognition and appraisal task, skin conductance levels (SCLs), heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) were assessed in 26 somatoform patients and compared to healthy controls. Interoceptive awareness was assessed by a heartbeat detection task. Results: We found evidence for a sympathovagal imbalance in somatoform disorders characterized by low parasympathetic reactivity during emotional tasks and increased sympathetic activation during baseline. Somatoform patients exhibited a reduced recognition performance for neutral and sad emotional expressions only. Possible confounding variables such as alexithymia, anxiety or depression were taken into account. Interoceptive awareness was reduced in somatoform patients. Conclusions: Our data demonstrate an imbalance in sympathovagal activation in somatoform disorders associated with decreased parasympathetic activation. This might account for difficulties in processing of sad and neutral facial expressions in somatoform patients which might be a pathogenic mechanism for increased everyday vulnerability. KW - Somatoform disorder KW - Interoceptive awareness KW - Facial recognition KW - Autonomic response KW - Heart rate variability Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2011.03.012 SN - 0022-3999 VL - 71 IS - 4 SP - 232 EP - 239 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Herbert, Beate M. A1 - Herbert, Cornelia A1 - Pollatos, Olga T1 - On the relationship between interoceptive awareness and alexithymia - is interoceptive awareness related to emotional awareness? JF - Journal of personality N2 - Interoceptive awareness (IA) is associated with emotional experience, the processing of emotional stimuli, and activation of brain structures that monitor the internal visceral and emotional state of the organism. Alexithymia is characterized by difficulties in identifying and describing one's emotions and externally oriented thinking (EOT) and reflects impairments in emotional awareness and the regulation of emotions. This study examined the relationship between alexithymia and IA in a healthy population of N = 155 persons. A well-validated heartbeat perception task to measure interoceptive awareness, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and a depression questionnaire (BDI-2) were administered to 88 women and 67 men. IA was inversely associated with all features of alexithymia in the whole sample. When considering sex differences, IA turned out to be a relevant negative predictor for the EOT subscale only in men. This large sample investigation in a nonclinical population indicates that IA represents a relevant negative predictor for alexithymia. Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2011.00717.x SN - 0022-3506 VL - 79 IS - 5 SP - 1149 EP - 1175 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Malden ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Herbert, Beate M. A1 - Herbert, Cornelia A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Weimer, Katja A1 - Enck, Paul A1 - Sauer, Helene A1 - Zipfel, Stephan T1 - Effects of short-term food deprivation on interoceptive awareness, feelings and autonomic cardiac activity JF - Biological psychology N2 - The perception of internal bodily signals (interoception) plays a relevant role for emotion processing and feelings. This study investigated changes of interoceptive awareness and cardiac autonomic activity induced by short-term food deprivation and its relationship to hunger and affective experience. 20 healthy women were exposed to 24 h of food deprivation in a controlled setting. Interoceptive awareness was assessed by using a heartbeat tracking task. Felt hunger, cardiac autonomic activity, mood and subjective appraisal of interoceptive sensations were assessed before and after fasting. Results show that short-term fasting intensifies interoceptive awareness, not restricted to food cues, via changes of autonomic cardiac and/or cardiodynamic activity. The increase of interoceptive awareness was positively related to felt hunger. Additionally, the results demonstrate the role of cardiac vagal activity as a potential index of emotion related self-regulation, for hunger, mood and the affective appraisal of interoceptive signals during acute fasting. KW - Interoceptive awareness KW - Hunger KW - Autonomic activity KW - Food deprivation KW - Self-regulation KW - Eating disorders Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.09.004 SN - 0301-0511 VL - 89 IS - 1 SP - 71 EP - 79 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Herbert, Beate M. A1 - Fuestoes, Juergen A1 - Weimer, Katja A1 - Enck, Paul A1 - Zipfel, Stephan T1 - Food deprivation sensitizes pain perception JF - International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology N2 - While food deprivation has known effects on sympathovagal balance, little is known about hunger's influence on the perception of pain. Since autonomic activities influence many cognitive and emotional processes, this suggests that food deprivation should interact with the perception of pain. This study analyzed the possible effects of short-term food deprivation on pain sensitivity in healthy female participants. This study was comprised of 32 healthy female participants who underwent a 48-hr inpatient hospital investigation. Prior to testing, heart rate and heart rate variability were assessed. After a standardized breakfast, day 1 measurements were taken. Food intake was then not allowed again until the following evening for 22 participants (experimental group), while 12 participants were served standard meals (control group). Pain threshold and tolerance were assessed at 10:00 a. m. on both days using a pressure algometer. Additionally pain experience was examined. Food deprivation significantly reduced pain thresholds and tolerance scores in the experimental group. Additionally, the sympathovagal balance changed, characterized by a decrease in parasympathetic activation. Higher vagal withdrawal after food deprivation was associated with higher pain sensitivity in the experimental group. Furthermore, perceived unpleasantness and pain intensity increased for threshold and tolerance stimuli in the experimental group. We conclude that short-term food deprivation sensitized pain perception in healthy females. An imbalance in sympathovagal activation evoked by food deprivation accounted for this effect. Our results might be a pathogenic mechanism for the development of emotional difficulties associated with disturbed eating behavior. KW - short-term food deprivation KW - pain threshold KW - pain tolerance KW - sympathovagal balance Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1027/0269-8803/a000062 SN - 0269-8803 VL - 26 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - Hogrefe CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Koch, Anne A1 - Pollatos, Olga T1 - Cardiac sensitivity in children: Sex differences and its relationship to parameters of emotional processing JF - Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research N2 - In adults, the level of ability to perceive one's own body signals plays an important role for many concepts of emotional experience as demonstrated for emotion processing or emotion regulation. Representative data on perception of body signals and its emotional correlates in children is lacking. Therefore, the present study investigated the cardiac sensitivity of 1,350 children between 6 and 11 years of age in a heartbeat perception task. Our main findings demonstrated the distribution of cardiac sensitivity in children as well as associations with interpersonal emotional intelligence and adaptability. Furthermore, independent of body mass index, boys showed a significantly higher cardiac sensitivity than girls. We conclude that cardiac sensitivity in children appears to show weaker but similar characteristics and relations to emotional parameters as found in adults, so that a dynamic developmental process can be assumed. KW - Children KW - Emotional intelligence KW - Heartbeat perception KW - Heart rate variability KW - Interoceptive sensitivity Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12233 SN - 0048-5772 SN - 1469-8986 VL - 51 IS - 9 SP - 932 EP - 941 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Koch, Anne A1 - Pollatos, Olga T1 - Reduced facial emotion recognition in overweight and obese children JF - Journal of psychosomatic research N2 - Objective: Emotional problems often co-occur in overweight or obese children. However, questions of whether emotion recognition deficits are present and how they are reflected have only been sparsely investigated to date. Methods: Therefore, the present study included 33 overweight and obese as well as 33 normal weight elementary school children between six and ten years that were matched for sex, age and socioeconomic status. Participants were shown different emotional faces of a well-validated set of stimuli on a computer screen, which they categorized and then rated on an emotional intensity level. Key measures were categorization performance along with reaction times and emotional intelligence as well as emotional eating questionnaire ratings. Results: Overweight children exhibited lower categorization accuracy as well as longer reaction times as compared to normal weight children, while no differences in intensity ratings occurred. Reaction time to neutral facial expressions was negatively related to intrapersonal and interpersonal emotional intelligence and emotional eating correlated negatively with accuracy for recognizing sad expressions. Conclusion: Facial emotion decoding difficulties seem to be of importance in overweight and obese children and deserve further consideration in terms of their exact impact on social functioning as well as on the maintenance of elevated body weight during child development. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved. KW - Childhood obesity KW - Emotion KW - Emotional expressions KW - Face categorization KW - Overweight Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2015.06.005 SN - 0022-3999 SN - 1879-1360 VL - 79 IS - 6 SP - 635 EP - 639 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Koch, Anne A1 - Matthias, Ellen A1 - Pollatos, Olga T1 - Increased Attentional Bias towards Food Pictures in Overweight and Obese Children JF - Journal of Child and Adolescent Behavior N2 - Objective: Childhood overweight is related to higher sensitivity for external food cues and less responsiveness towards internal satiety signals. Thus, cognitive psychological models assume an enhanced food attention bias underlying overeating behavior. Nevertheless, this question has only been sparsely investigated so far in younger children and it remains open whether restrained eating behavior plays a correlative role. Methods: The present study investigated this specific information processing bias for food relevant stimuli in 34 overweight children between 6 and 10 years and 34 normal weight children matched for age, sex and socioeconomic status. Children completed a computerized Food Picture Interference task that assessed reaction time interference effects towards high and low calorie food pictures. Level of hunger and restrained eating were assessed via self-report. Results: Results indicated that while finding no group difference in general processing speed or hunger level before the task, overweight children showed a higher attentional bias to food pictures than normal weight children. No effect of caloric density was found. However, surprisingly, the interference effect was negatively related to restrained eating in the overweight group only. Conclusion: The found hypersensitivity for food cues independent of calorie content in overweight children appears to be related to dysfunctional eating, so that future research should consider strategies for attentional retraining. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4172/2375-4494.1000130 SN - 2375-4494 VL - 2 IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gottwald, Janna M. A1 - Elsner, Birgit A1 - Pollatos, Olga T1 - Good is up-spatial metaphors in action observation JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - Positive objects or actions are associated with physical highness, whereas negative objects or actions are related to physical lowness. Previous research suggests that metaphorical connection ("good is up" or "bad is down") between spatial experience and evaluation of objects is grounded in actual experience with the body. Prior studies investigated effects of spatial metaphors with respect to verticality of either static objects or self-performed actions. By presenting videos of object placements, the current three experiments combined vertically-located stimuli with observation of vertically-directed actions. As expected, participants' ratings of emotionally-neutral objects were systematically influenced by the observed vertical positioning, that is, ratings were more positive for objects that were observed being placed up as compared to down. Moreover, effects were slightly more pronounced for "bad is down," because only the observed downward, but not the upward, action led to different ratings as compared to a medium-positioned action. Last, some ratings were even affected by observing only the upward/downward action, without seeing the final vertical placement of the object. Thus, both, a combination of observing a vertically-directed action and seeing a vertically-located object, and observing a vertically-directed action alone, affected participants' evaluation of emotional valence of the involved object. The present findings expand the relevance of spatial metaphors to action observation, thereby giving new impetus to embodied-cognition research. KW - embodied cognition KW - spatial metaphors KW - emotional valence KW - action observation KW - action perception Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01605 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 6 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - GEN A1 - Gottwald, Janna M. A1 - Elsner, Birgit A1 - Pollatos, Olga T1 - Good is up-spatial metaphors in action observation T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Positive objects or actions are associated with physical highness, whereas negative objects or actions are related to physical lowness. Previous research suggests that metaphorical connection ("good is up" or "bad is down") between spatial experience and evaluation of objects is grounded in actual experience with the body. Prior studies investigated effects of spatial metaphors with respect to verticality of either static objects or self-performed actions. By presenting videos of object placements, the current three experiments combined vertically-located stimuli with observation of vertically-directed actions. As expected, participants' ratings of emotionally-neutral objects were systematically influenced by the observed vertical positioning, that is, ratings were more positive for objects that were observed being placed up as compared to down. Moreover, effects were slightly more pronounced for "bad is down," because only the observed downward, but not the upward, action led to different ratings as compared to a medium-positioned action. Last, some ratings were even affected by observing only the upward/downward action, without seeing the final vertical placement of the object. Thus, both, a combination of observing a vertically-directed action and seeing a vertically-located object, and observing a vertically-directed action alone, affected participants' evaluation of emotional valence of the involved object. The present findings expand the relevance of spatial metaphors to action observation, thereby giving new impetus to embodied-cognition research. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 422 KW - embodied cognition KW - spatial metaphors KW - emotional valence KW - action observation KW - action perception Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-406281 IS - 422 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ohl, Sven A1 - Wohltat, Christian A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Engbert, Ralf T1 - Microsaccades Are Coupled to Heartbeat JF - The journal of neuroscience N2 - During visual fixation, the eye generates microsaccades and slower components of fixational eye movements that are part of the visual processing strategy in humans. Here, we show that ongoing heartbeat is coupled to temporal rate variations in the generation of microsaccades. Using coregistration of eye recording and ECG in humans, we tested the hypothesis that microsaccade onsets are coupled to the relative phase of the R-R intervals in heartbeats. We observed significantly more microsaccades during the early phase after the R peak in the ECG. This form of coupling between heartbeat and eye movements was substantiated by the additional finding of a coupling between heart phase and motion activity in slow fixational eye movements; i.e., retinal image slip caused by physiological drift. Our findings therefore demonstrate a coupling of the oculomotor system and ongoing heartbeat, which provides further evidence for bodily influences on visuomotor functioning. KW - eye movements KW - heartbeat KW - microsaccades Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2211-15.2016 SN - 0270-6474 VL - 36 SP - 1237 EP - 1241 PB - Society for Neuroscience CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Yeldesbay, Azamat A1 - Pikovskij, Arkadij A1 - Rosenblum, Michael T1 - How much time has passed? Ask your heart JF - Frontiers in neurorobotics N2 - Internal signals like one's heartbeats are centrally processed via specific pathways and both their neural representations as well as their conscious perception (interoception) provide key information for many cognitive processes. Recent empirical findings propose that neural processes in the insular cortex, which are related to bodily signals, might constitute a neurophysiological mechanism for the encoding of duration. Nevertheless, the exact nature of such a proposed relationship remains unclear. We aimed to address this question by searching for the effects of cardiac rhythm on time perception by the use of a duration reproduction paradigm. Time intervals used were of 0.5, 2, 3, 7, 10, 14, 25, and 40s length. In a framework of synchronization hypothesis, measures of phase locking between the cardiac cycle and start/stop signals of the reproduction task were calculated to quantify this relationship. The main result is that marginally significant synchronization indices (Sls) between the heart cycle and the time reproduction responses for the time intervals of 2, 3, 10, 14, and 25s length were obtained, while results were not significant for durations of 0.5, 7, and 40s length. On the single participant level, several subjects exhibited some synchrony between the heart cycle and the time reproduction responses, most pronounced for the time interval of 25s (8 out of 23 participants for 20% quantile). Better time reproduction accuracy was not related with larger degree of phase locking, but with greater vagal control of the heart. A higher interoceptive sensitivity (IS) was associated with a higher synchronization index (SI) for the 2s time interval only. We conclude that information obtained from the cardiac cycle is relevant for the encoding and reproduction of time in the time span of 2-25s. Sympathovagal tone as well as interoceptive processes mediate the accuracy of time estimation. KW - time interval reproduction KW - synchronization KW - heart cycle KW - interoception KW - interoceptive sensitivity Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2014.00015 SN - 1662-5218 VL - 8 SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER -