Margaret Sala

Interoception refers to the process by which the nervous system senses, interprets, and integrates signals originating from within the body, providing a moment-by-moment mapping of the body's internal landscape across conscious and unconscious levels. Interoceptive signaling has been considered a component process of reflexes, urges, feelings, drives, adaptive responses, and cognitive and emotional experiences, highlighting its contributions to the maintenance of homeostatic functioning, body regulation, and survival. Dysfunction of interoception is increasingly recognized as an important component of different mental health conditions, including anxiety disorders, mood disorders, eating disorders, addictive disorders, and somatic symptom disorders. However, a number of conceptual and methodological challenges have made it difficult for interoceptive constructs to be broadly applied in mental health research and treatment settings. In November 2016, the Laureate Institute for Brain Research organized the first Interoception Summit, a gathering of interoception experts from around the world, with the goal of accelerating progress in understanding the role of interoception in mental health. The discussions at the meeting were organized around four themes: interoceptive assessment, interoceptive integration, interoceptive psychopathology, and the generation of a roadmap that could serve as a guide for future endeavors. This review article presents an overview of the emerging consensus generated by the meeting.

OBJECTIVE: Most US adults are insufficiently active. One strategy individuals could use to increase physical activity is to exercise mindfully (i.e., while paying attention to present-moment experiences with acceptance. A mindfulness-based intervention for exercise can be delivered via an audio recording, which is advantageous in regard to time demands, cost, and dissemination potential. The aims of this parallel two-arm pilot randomized controlled trial were to assess the feasibility and acceptability of an audio-recorded mindfulness-based intervention and to assess whether the intervention resulted in a clinically meaningful difference in physical activity compared with the control condition. METHODS: Physically underactive adults (N = 50) were randomized to a mindfulness intervention condition in which they were instructed to exercise while listening to an audio-recorded mindfulness-intervention or an active control group in which they were instructed to exercise while using a heart rate monitor. Participants completed a 30-minute moderate intensity treadmill exercise bout during a baseline in-laboratory session in the manner in which they were randomized (i.e., mindfulness recording versus using a heart rate monitor) and instructed to exercise in this manner for the next week. At follow-up, acceptability was measured by self-report, feasibility by frequency of intervention use, and physical activity using both self-reported physical activity recall and an accelerometer. RESULTS: The audio-recorded mindfulness-based physical activity intervention was rated as acceptable and feasible to use. Compared with the control group, the intervention also resulted in clinically meaningful differences in self-reported moderate-to-vigorous physical activity minutes (mean difference = 67.16 minutes) and accelerometer-measured minutes (mean difference = 35.48 minutes) during a 1-week follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The audio-recorded mindfulness-based physical activity intervention is a promising approach to increasing physical activity with good dissemination potential.

BACKGROUND: ED psychopathology is becoming more prevalent in Iran. Negative affect has been found to be an important risk factor in eating disorder (ED) onset in research conducted in Western countries, and is also emerging as a potential vulnerability factor to ED psychopathology in Iran. Network theory offers a novel framework to understand the association between negative affect and ED psychopathology in Iran. The primary aim of the current study was to use network analysis to identify bridge symptoms (i.e., symptoms that activate or weaken symptoms in another cluster) across a negative affect and ED psychopathology network among Iranian college students. We also aimed to identify core symptoms (i.e., nodes that demonstrate the strongest connections to other nodes). METHOD: Participants were Iranian college students (n = 637; 60.3% women) who completed the Farsi-eating disorder examination-questionnaire and Farsi-negative affect. We estimated a network of ED symptoms and negative affective states and identified bridge and central symptoms. RESULTS: Hostility and shame emerged as central bridge symptoms across the negative affect and ED psychopathology clusters. The most central nodes were strong desire to lose weight, definite fear of losing control over eating, and binge eating episodes. CONCLUSION: The negative affective states of hostility and shame may increase vulnerability to ED psychopathology among Iranian college students. Findings have important implications for ED prevention programs that should be examined in future research.