Murphy, Jennifer; Cheesman, Rosa; Gregory, Alice M.; Lau, Jennifer Y. F.; Ehlers, Anke; Catmur, Caroline; Bird, Geoffrey and Eley, Thalia C.. 2019. Estimating the stability of heartbeat counting in middle childhood: a twin study. Biological Psychology, 148(107764), ISSN 0301-0511 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

There is growing interest in interoception, the perception of the body’s internal state, and its relevance for health across development. Most evidence linking interoception to health has used the heartbeat counting task. However, the temporal stability of the measure, particularly during childhood, and the etiological factors that underlie stability, remain largely unexamined. Using data from the ECHO twin sample we estimated the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on the stability of heartbeat counting across two years (age 8-10), the longest timeframe examined. Heartbeat counting accuracy was modestly correlated across time, (r=.35), and accuracy improved with age. Non-shared environmental factors accounted for the most variance at both time points and were the main contributors to temporal stability of heartbeat counting. Future research should seek to identify these non-shared environmental factors and elucidate whether this relatively modest stability reflects variability of interoception across development or unreliability of the heartbeat counting task.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107764
Additional Information:	The ECHO study was supported by a Career Development Award from the UK MRC to T. C. Eley (G120/635). T. C. Eley is part-funded by a programme grant from the UK Medical Research Council (MR/M021475/1). This study presents independent research part-funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. JM and RC are both supported by doctoral studentships from the ESRC. GB was supported by the Baily Thomas Trust. AE is supported by the Wellcome Trust (200796).
Keywords:	interoceptive accuracy, interoception, heartbeat counting, stability, heritability, twins
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Psychology
Dates:	Date Event 3 September 2019 Accepted 10 September 2019 Published Online November 2019 Published
Item ID:	26836
Date Deposited:	04 Sep 2019 11:45
Last Modified:	11 Jun 2021 13:19
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/26836

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