title: Prospective memory mediated by interoceptive accuracy: a psychophysiological approach.
abstract: Previous studies on prospective memory (PM), defined as memory for future intentions, suggest that psychological stress enhances successful PM retrieval. However, the mechanisms underlying this notion remain poorly understood. We hypothesized that PM retrieval is achieved through interaction with autonomic nervous activity, which is mediated by the individual accuracy of interoceptive awareness, as measured by the heartbeat detection task. In this study, the relationship between cardiac reactivity and retrieval of delayed intentions was evaluated using the event-based PM task. Participants were required to detect PM target letters while engaged in an ongoing 2-back working memory task. The results demonstrated that individuals with higher PM task performance had a greater increase in heart rate on PM target presentation. Also, higher interoceptive perceivers showed better PM task performance. This pattern was not observed for working memory task performance. These findings suggest that cardiac afferent signals enhance PM retrieval, which is mediated by individual levels of interoceptive accuracy.This article is part of the themed issue 'Interoception beyond homeostasis: affect, cognition and mental health'.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Keio University, Tokyo 108-8345, Japan umeda@flet.keio.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7808-0958
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Umeda
authors.affiliation: Keio Advanced Research Center, Keio University, Tokyo 108-8345, Japan.
authors.forename: Saiko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tochizawa
authors.affiliation: Keio Advanced Research Center, Keio University, Tokyo 108-8345, Japan.
authors.forename: Midori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shibata
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Keio University, Tokyo 108-8345, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Terasawa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D065812:Interoception; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011603:Psychophysiology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: autonomic nervous activity; cardiac reactivity; interoception; prospective memory