Eszter Ferentzi

• PhD
• Eötvös Loránd University

Background: Proprioceptive accuracy refers to the individual's ability to perceive proprioceptive information, that is, the information referring to the actual state of the locomotor system, which originates from mechanoreceptors located in various parts of the locomotor system and from tactile receptors located in the skin. Proprioceptive accurac...

Individuals’ ability to perceive their heartbeats, called cardioceptive accuracy, is assessed with various paradigms. Performance in the mental and a novel motor tracking task that eliminates disturbing tactile sensations was assessed at rest and during walking with the participation of 45 young people. Significantly higher scores in the mental tra...

Schandry’s mental heartbeat tracking task is a widely used measure of interoception, assessing heartbeat perception. We classify the factors that contribute to performance on the task as (i) trait-like characteristics, (ii) expectation-related factors, and (iii) factors showing participants’ task set. We recommend conducting further research to bet...

There are a number of questionnaires assessing the self-reported trait-like aspect of interoception, also called interoceptive sensibility (ISb). Based on the varying purposes of their development and characteristics, however, it is not likely that they assess exactly the same construct. In a community sample of 265 adults, we examined this assumpt...

Background: Attentiveness to bodily states and changes is explicitly or implicitly included in constructs belonging to the umbrella term of self-reported interoceptive or body awareness. The association between self-reported and actual attentiveness to the body is a largely unexplored area. Aims: The present experiment aimed to investigate actual a...

There are several measures used to assess one's ability to perceive their heartbeat (cardiac interoceptive accuracy). These can be categorized into two main task types: tracking (e.g., motor tracking, heartbeat counting) and discrimination (e.g., two‐ and multi‐interval). The recently developed cardiovascular signal detection task (cvSDT) combines...

In this chapter, presenting the history of interoception research, we tell six parallel stories: (1) how the initially narrow definition of interoception became broader, (2) how, instead of passive reception, active perception came into focus, (3) how the roots of accuracy measures and questionnaires differed from the beginning (and how they are re...

Proprioceptive accuracy (PAc), i.e., the acuity of perception of the state of different parts of the motor system, shows substantial intraindividual differences, and is often considered a general ability. However, it is questionable whether there is an association between accuracies measured with different tests at different body sites. With the pa...

Previous studies have shown that the human capacity to gauge one's own physiological state is notoriously flawed. The cause for the mismatch between perceived and physiological stress has not yet been properly identified. In this study, we assumed that cardioceptive accuracy (CAc) is positively associated with cardiovascular reactivity, and CAc and...

Based on their characteristics, it is likely that mind–body techniques develop interoception, the perception of bodily state. Nevertheless, findings on mindfulness, meditation, yoga, and body scan techniques are inconclusive. Additionally, the methodological scope is not exhaustive, neither in terms of the intervention nor the applied measure of in...

Measures of cardiac perceptual ability (also called cardiac accuracy) are methods of cardiac interoception, the perception of bodily sensation related to heart activity. This narrative review aims to provide an overview of these methods. We differentiate between three main measurement types: (1) change detection, i.e., when the task is to notice th...

Background: Protective behaviors were essential for minimizing the spread of the virus during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It is often assumed that awareness of bodily sensations (interoception) can improve decision-making and facilitate adaptive behavior. Objective: This paper investigates cross-sectional and longitudinal r...

Assessment of the acuity of heartbeat perception, dubbed cardioceptive accuracy, as well as its association with various psychological characteristics are hot topics of interoception research. In this study, we aimed (1) to replicate previously reported findings on the association between the mental tracking task and a novel motor tracking task tha...

Our aim was to conceptually replicate the findings of previous empirical studies showing that people with higher cardiac interoceptive accuracy experience more intense emotions. Apart of the mental heartbeat tracking task of Schandry, Hungarian (n = 46, 76.0% female, mean age 22.28 ± 2.228) and Norwegian (n = 50, 60.0% female, mean age 24.66 ± 3.04...

Proprioceptive information makes us able to perceive the position of our joints from an internal point of view. In certain cases, proprioceptive information has to be stored in short-term memory, for example, during the learning of new motor skills or the assessment of proprioceptive accuracy. However, there are contradictory findings about the mod...

Although association between sustained attention and various aspects of interoception (i.e. the perception of the body state) seems plausible, research on this subject is scarce. In the present study, 74 undergraduate students (41 females; age: 22.3 ± 4.04 yrs) filled out the Body Awareness Questionnaire, the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, and...

The aim of this study was to analyse the high density EEG during movement execution guided by visual attention to reveal the detailed topographic distributions of delta and theta oscillations. Twenty right-handed young subjects performed a finger tapping task, paced by a continuously transited repeating visual stimuli. Baseline corrected power of s...

Proprioceptive accuracy refers to the individual’s ability to perceive proprioceptive information, i.e., the information referring to the actual state of the locomotor system, that originates from mechanoreceptors located in various parts of the locomotor system and from tactile receptors of the skin. Proprioceptive accuracy appears an important as...

The mental heartbeat tracking task by Schandry is sensitive to non-interoceptive (top-down) influences, e.g., estimation of heart rate and expectation. The two studies reported here investigated the impact of these factors on the outcome of the task. In Study 1, performance-related expectation was assessed between the training interval and the real...

Proprioceptive information, originating from the locomotor system makes us able to perceive the position of our joints from an internal point of view. In certain cases, proprioceptive information has to be stored in short-term memory, for example, during the learning of new motor skills or the assessment of proprioceptive accuracy. However, there a...

It is often assumed that distracting attention from unpleasant body sensations evoked by physical exertion can alleviate perceived fatigue and increase physical performance. Also, the higher acuity of perception of heartbeats was associated with less physical performance in one study with sedentary participants. The current study was designed to sh...

Pain perception is influenced by several factors, and among them, affect, sex, and perception of bodily signals are assumed to play a prominent role. The aim of the present study is to explore how sex, cardiac interoceptive accuracy, and the interaction of the latter two influence the perception of experimentally induced pain. We investigated a lar...

Interoception in the broader sense refers to the perception of internal states, including the perception of the actual state of the internal organs (visceroception) and the motor system (proprioception). Dimensions of interoception include (1) interoceptive accuracy, i.e., the ability to sense internal changes assessed with behavioral tests, (2) co...

The rubber hand illusion (RHI) is a widely used tool in the study of multisensory integration. It develops as the interaction of temporally consistent visual and tactile input, which can overwrite proprioceptive information. Theoretically, the accuracy of proprioception may influence the proneness to the RHI but this has received little research at...

The Joint Position Reproduction test (JPR), one of the most widely used measurements to estimate proprioceptive accuracy, requires the short term storage of proprioceptive information. It has been suggested that visuospatial sketchpad plays a fundamental role in the memorization of proprioceptive information. The current study aimed to investigate...

The goal of this study was to psychometrically evaluate the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA), a popular self-report questionnaire claimed to assess the most important subjective aspects of interoception. We collected data in two samples (N = 644 and N = 1,516) and focused on the factor structure and validity of MAIA, as...

Verbal instructions provided during yoga classes can differ substantially. Yoga instructors might choose to focus on the physical aspects of yoga (e.g., by emphasizing the characteristics of the poses), or they might take a more spiritual approach (e.g., by mentioning energy flow and chakras). The present study investigated the effects of verbal cu...

Background Objectification theory assumes that individuals with low level of interoceptive accuracy may develop an external orientation for information concerning their body. Past research has found associations between interoceptive accuracy and body image concerns. We aimed to explore temporal relationships between the tendency to monitor one's b...

Under resting conditions, cardioceptive accuracy—the acuity of the perception of heartbeats—is associated with the self‐reported intensity of affective states but not with reported valence. Physical exertion elicits positive affect below the anaerobic threshold and negative affect above the threshold while arousal gradually increases. The current r...

Purpose: Proprioception plays an essential role in motor control and in psychological functioning: it is the basis of body schema and the feeling of body ownership. There are individual differences in the processing accuracy of proprioceptive stimuli. Although proprioceptive acuity plays an important role in physical competence, there are contradi...

Previous research demonstrated that individuals are able to reliably reproduce their heart rate under physical load, however, they are prone to underestimate it. It was also assumed that the ability to perceive heartbeats under resting conditions might play a role in the regulation of physical activity. In an experimental setting, 47 young individu...

According to the proposition of several theoretical accounts, the perception of the bodily cues, interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive sensibility, has a significant positive impact on subjective well‐being. Others assume a negative association; however, empirical evidence is scarce. In this study, 142 young adults completed questionnaires asses...

Narratív összefoglalónkban megkíséreljük felvázolni az interocepcióval kapcsolatos kutatások jelenlegi helyzetét. A definíciós nehézségek, modalitások és dimenziók áttekintése után sorra vesszük a méréssel kapcsolatos elméleti és gyakorlati problémákat, majd részletesebben is bemutatjuk az interocepció idegrendszeri hátterét. Az alapok áttekintése...

Objective: The term interoception refers to the perception of bodily cues. In empirical studies, it is assessed using heartbeat detection or tracking tasks, often with the implicit assumption that cardioception reflects general interoceptive ability. Studies that applied a multichannel approach measured only a limited number of modalities. In the c...

In this chapter, we provide an overview how emotion regulation is related to embodiment, the individual experience shaped by the state of the body and its mental representation. Firstly, we summarize the main concepts of emotion regulation, and the relation between emotion processing and interoception, i.e. the perception of the internal bodily cue...

Objective: Various aspects of interoception are regarded as temporally stable phenomena. This study investigates the temporal stability of and longitudinal associations between interoceptive accuracy (as measured with heartbeat tracking task) and a related concept, body awareness (assessed by self-report). Methods: In a two-month longitudinal st...

Aim: This study investigated the temporal stability and correlates of attention-related body sensations that emerge without external stimulation during rest and due to focused attention on a body part. Materials: To assess attention-related body sensations, participants were asked to focus on a freely chosen body area with closed eyes, and had to r...

Tingling is a bodily sensation experienced under a variety of conditions from everyday experiences to experimental and therapeutic situations. It can be induced by both peripheral or afferent (external stimulation, peripheral pathology) and higher cognitive (expectation) processes. The paper summarizes the current scientific knowledge on the neurop...

Body responsiveness is ‘the tendency to integrate body sensations into conscious awareness to guide decision making and behavior and not suppress or react impulsively to them’. It is assessed by a 7-item tool, the Body Responsiveness Questionnaire (BRQ), which has not yet been validated on the European population. We aimed to translate the original...

The associations of body awareness (BA) and somatosensory amplification (SSA) with the Big Five personality factors and sensory modalities were investigated in a cross-sectional study. It was expected that both constructs would be related to introversion; and that SSA as opposed to BA would be connected with emotional lability. Perception of pain a...

Az elmúlt évtizedekben a turizmus transzformációs folyamaton ment keresztül. Szociokulturális, gazdasági, politikai változások vezettek a fogyasztói szokások átalakulásához, melynek eredményeként a vendég passzív szemlélőből a turizmus aktív szereplőjévé vált (Pusztai 2013, Dujmović – Vitasović 2015). Napjainkban a turizmus az élmények aktív piaca,...

The study aimed to assess the attitudes of laypeople toward clinical placebo use. One of three imaginary stories was presented randomly in a popular news portal and participants (6,404 individuals) were asked to rate nine statements about it. In the stories, placebo therapy was used in a deceptive way. Following the success of the treatment, the pa...

The recent status of placebo usage in medical practice is highly controversial. To make a better established judgment about this rather complex issue, we clearly need a detailed picture about the different aspects of circumstances of medical placebo use. This is the fi rst study in Hungary to investigate physicians' beliefs, knowledge, and experien...

Some ethical and practical aspects of the therapeutic use of placebos among Hungarian GPs (N = 94) were investigated in a questionnaire study. The majority of the responding GPs had already used placebos in their praxis. Placebo therapy was held effective on subjective symptoms by 52.7% of the responding physicians, and on both subjective and objec...