Interoceptive ability is uncorrelated across respiratory and cardiac axes: a large scale psychophysical study

Interoception, the perception of internal bodily signals, is thought to be fundamental for emotionalregulation and cognitive functioning. While previous studies have indicated a degree of sharedvariance in interoceptive processes across cardiac and respiratory systems, evidence remainslimited due to methodological constraints and small sample sizes. This study aimed to investigateindividual differences in cardiac and respiratory interoception, as well as auditory exteroceptionacross sensitivity, precision, and metacognition using consistent psychophysical approaches. In asample of 241 participants, we found no significant correlations between cardiac and respiratoryinteroceptive dimensions, with the exception of a modest positive association in subjectiveconfidence. Bayesian analyses provided moderate to substantial evidence supporting the absenceof correlations across most dimensions except confidence, suggesting that interoceptive processesmay be largely modality-specific, while subjective confidence may be more domain-general. These findings refine theoretical models of interoception and highlight the importance of modality-specific psychophysical approaches in both cognitive and clinical research on interoceptive ability.