Investigating the relationship between cardiac interoceptive accuracy and stress: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Interoceptive accuracy, the ability to correctly perceive internal body signals such as heartbeats, has been empirically and theoretically linked to stress. However, issues with the measurement of both interoceptive accuracy and stress have led to lack of clarity regarding this relationship. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to clarify whether interoceptive accuracy is associated with different facets of stress, including - physical, cognitive and self-reported stressors and the physiological stress response. A systematic search identified 2014 abstracts. Twenty-eight authors were contacted to request data for eligible studies, which yielded a final sample of 20 studies. Results revealed a positive association between heartbeat counting task (HCT) performance and acute physical stressors, and a negative association between HCT performance and physiological stress responses. No significant relationships were observed between stress and interoceptive accuracy assessed by the heartbeat discrimination task. While these findings offer tentative support for stress–interoceptive accuracy associations, they must be interpreted with caution given substantial heterogeneity in stress measures, limited use of interoception tasks beyond the HCT, and ongoing concerns regarding task validity. Implications for future research and methodological recommendations are discussed.