The Relationship Between Functional Connectivity and Interoceptive Sensibility

BACKGROUND Interoceptive signals related to changes in heartbeat, respiration, and gastric functioning continuously feedback to the brain. The interpretation of these signals influences several cognitive, affective, and motoric functions. Previous research has highlighted the distinction between the ability to accurately detect interoceptive information (i.e., interoceptive accuracy) and an individual's beliefs about his or her interoceptive abilities (i.e., interoceptive sensibility). Although numerous studies have delineated the neural substrates of interoceptive accuracy, less is known about the brain areas involved with interoceptive sensibility. METHODS In the current study, twenty-eight healthy participants completed the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA), a self-report measure of interoceptive sensibility, prior to undergoing a 7-minute resting-state functional MRI scan. RESULTS Overall MAIA scores, as well as scores on its eight subscales, were entered as covariates in subsequent region-of-interest (ROI) and independent-component analyses (ICA). These analyses yielded three key results. First, interoceptive sensibility was negatively correlated with the functional connectivity of visual regions. Second, the cerebellar resting-state network showed positive correlations with two MAIA subscales, suggesting that this structure plays a role in interoceptive functions. Finally, the functional connectivity of the insula, a structure critical for interoceptive accuracy, was not correlated with any of the MAIA scores. CONCLUSION These results demonstrate that the brain areas associated with individual differences in interoceptive sensibility show relatively little overlap with those involved with the accurate detection of interoceptive information.