Between flesh and brain: Interoception, functional connectivity and empathy processing in a patient with Depersonalization Disorder

LUCAS SEDEÑO, BLAS COUTO, MARGHERITA MELLONI, ANDRÉS CANALES-JOHNSON, ADRIÁN YORIS, MARCELA VELÁSQUEZ, EZEQUIEL MIKULAN, PABLO BARTTFELD, MARIANO SIGMAN, RAFAEL KICHIC, FACUNDO MANES, TRISTAN A. BEKINSCHTEIN, AGUSTIN IBANEZ

San Diego, California

Congreso; 2013 Society for Social Neuroscience Annual Meeting; 2013

Society for Social Neuroscience

Interoception, defined as the perception of body and visceral sensations, has been proposed as a core element in psychological models of panic attacks1. These models suggest that panic attacks are triggered by the awareness of somatic sensations accompanying physiological arousal, followed by the interpretation of these somatic sensations as a medical or psychological threat2. Besides, recent studies have found positive significant correlations between interoceptive accuracy and the experience of positive and negative emotions3,4.. Our objective is to determine whether there are systematic differences in interoception among anxiety patients with infrequent panic attacks (experienced at least one panic attack during lifetime, named infrequent panickers), obsessive compulsive disorder patients (OCD) and controls.