Interoceptive Accuracy and Panic

Psychophysiological models of panic hypothesize that panickers focus attention on and become anxious about the physical sensations associated with panic. Attention on internal somatic cues has been labeled interoception. The present study examined the role of physiological arousal and subjective anxiety on interoceptive accuracy. Infrequent panickers and nonanxious participants participated in an initial baseline to examine overall interoceptive accuracy. Next, participants ingested caffeine, about which they received either safety or no safety information. Using a mental heartbeat tracking paradigm, participantsʹ count of their heartbeats during specific time intervals were coded based on polygraph measures. Infrequent panickers were more accurate in the perception of their heartbeats than nonanxious participants. Changes in physiological arousal were not associated with increased accuracy on the heartbeat perception task. However, higher levels of self-reported anxiety were associated with superior performance.