Estimating the stability of heartbeat counting in middle childhood: A twin study

TY - JOUR

T1 - Estimating the stability of heartbeat counting in middle childhood

T2 - A twin study

AU - Murphy, Jennifer

AU - Cheesman, Rosa

AU - Gregory, Alice M.

AU - Lau, Yun Fai

AU - Ehlers, Anke

AU - Catmur, Caroline

AU - Bird, Geoffrey

AU - Eley, Thalia C.

PY - 2019/11/1

Y1 - 2019/11/1

N2 - There is growing interest in interoception, the perception of the body’s internal state, and its relevance for health across development. Most evidence linking interoception to health has used the heartbeat counting task. However, the temporal stability of the measure, particularly during childhood, and the etiological factors that underlie stability, remain largely unexamined. Using data from the ECHO twin sample we estimated the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on the stability of heartbeat counting across two years (age 8–10), the longest time-frame examined. Heartbeat counting accuracy was modestly correlated across time, (r = .35) and accuracy improved with age. Non-shared environmental factors accounted for the most variance at both time points and were the main contributors to temporal stability of heartbeat counting. Future research should seek to identify these non-shared environmental factors and elucidate whether this relatively modest stability reflects variability of interoception across development or unreliability of the heartbeat counting task.

AB - There is growing interest in interoception, the perception of the body’s internal state, and its relevance for health across development. Most evidence linking interoception to health has used the heartbeat counting task. However, the temporal stability of the measure, particularly during childhood, and the etiological factors that underlie stability, remain largely unexamined. Using data from the ECHO twin sample we estimated the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on the stability of heartbeat counting across two years (age 8–10), the longest time-frame examined. Heartbeat counting accuracy was modestly correlated across time, (r = .35) and accuracy improved with age. Non-shared environmental factors accounted for the most variance at both time points and were the main contributors to temporal stability of heartbeat counting. Future research should seek to identify these non-shared environmental factors and elucidate whether this relatively modest stability reflects variability of interoception across development or unreliability of the heartbeat counting task.

KW - Heartbeat counting

KW - Heritability

KW - Interoception

KW - Interoceptive accuracy

KW - Stability

KW - Twins

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072254362&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107764

DO - 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107764

M3 - Article

SN - 0301-0511

VL - 148

JO - Biological Psychology

JF - Biological Psychology

M1 - 107764

ER -