Heartbeat detection task

The canonical measure of interoceptive-sensitivity, originating with Schandry (1981), “Heart beat perception and emotional experience.” Participants report perceived heartbeats over intervals; the score indexes cardiac interoceptive accuracy.

Role in this cluster

In Seth (2013) the task is the workhorse linking interoception to emotion, self, and body ownership:

• Interoceptive sensitivity measured this way correlates with right-AIC structure/function and with emotional symptomatology (Critchley et al. 2004).
• Lower scores predict greater rubber-hand-illusion susceptibility (Tsakiris et al. 2011) — central to the experience-of-body-ownership evidence.
• Modulates cardiac-timing effects on memory (Garfinkel et al. 2013).

Methodological caution

Seth’s 2013 usage of “interoceptive sensitivity” predates the now-standard Garfinkel et al. (2015) tripartite distinction (interoceptive accuracy = task performance; sensibility = self-reported/confidence; awareness = metacognitive correspondence). Heartbeat-counting in particular is critiqued for confounds with heart-rate beliefs. Interpret older “IS” claims accordingly.