Poster #5 - The developmental trajectory of respiratory and cardiac interoceptive sensitivity from 9 to 18 months of age

• In Event: Poster Session 02

Abstract

Interoception is the perception of internal bodily signals, such as heartbeat and respiration. Empirical studies on the development of interoception in infancy are lacking. In fact, to date, only one published study has explored cardiac interoceptive sensitivity in 5-month-old infants (Maister et al. 2017). Here, we replicate the only published paradigm on interoception in infants, show first evidence for respiratory interoception in infants, and investigate the developmental trajectory of interoception from 9- to 18-months.

We tested 90 infants at 9 months of age who took part in a larger project, 54 of whom were tested again when they were at 18 months of age. To measure cardiac interoceptive sensitivity we used the only published interoception task in infants to date: the iBEATs task (Maister et al. 2017). In the iBEATs task, infants are presented with images pulsating synchronously or asynchronously to their own heartbeat while eye tracking is used to measure looking times. Further, going beyond cardiac perception, we developed the iBREATH paradigm to measure respiratory interoceptive sensitivity in infants. In the iBREATH paradigm, infants are presented with images expanding and shrinking synchronously or asynchronously with their own breathing tempo.

Results showed that in both the iBEATs (Figure 1A, N = 44, t = -2.77, p = .008) and the iBREATH (Figure 1B, N = 41, t = -2.68, p = .011), 9-month-old infants on average looked longer towards stimuli presented synchronously to their own heartbeat and respiration compared to stimuli presented asynchronously.

Next, we investigated whether cardiac and respiratory interoception were correlated at 9 months of age. We computed individual difference scores as absolute difference between synchronous and asynchronous conditions for the iBEATs and the iBREATH paradigms. We did not find a correlation between the cardiac and respiratory interoception tasks (N = 24, r = -.28, p = .18).

Finally, we investigated whether there is a difference in cardiac and respiratory interoceptive sensitivity between 9 and 18 months of age. For our preliminary analysis we conducted a linear mixed model for iBEATS and iBREATH tasks using the individual difference scores as outcome, age as factor, and included a random slope for participant. Age was a significant predictor for the iBREATH (Figure 2A, β = .13, SE = .05, t = 2.80, p = .007), but not the iBEATs (Figure 2B, β = -.02, SE = .04, t = -.78, p = .44).

Overall, our results indicate that 9-month-old infants show cardiac and respiratory interoceptive sensitivity. Moreover, we provided the first evidence that interoception in cardiac and respiratory domains are not correlated with each other at this age group, mirroring results in children and adults. Finally, preliminary analysis indicates that there is a change in respiratory-, but not cardiac-, interoceptive sensitivity scores in 9- and 18-month-old-infants. These findings provide an important empirical basis for theoretical accounts highlighting the relevance of interoception in early development.

Authors

• Markus R Tünte, University of Vienna
  Presenting Author

• Moritz Wunderwald

• Johannes Bullinger, Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich

• Asena Boyadziheva

• Lara Maister, University of Bangor

• Birgit Elsner, University of Potsdam

• Manos Tsakiris

• Stefanie Hoehl, University of Vienna

• Ezgi Kayhan, University of Potsdam