Journal of Boredom Studies

No. 2 (2024)
Articles

Interoception and Boredom Proneness: A Novel Finding and a Call for Research

PDF HTML
  • Chantal Trudel,
  • Joshua C. Budge,
  • Daniela Pasqualini,
  • James Danckert
Chantal Trudel
University of Waterloo
Joshua C. Budge
University of Waterloo
Daniela Pasqualini
University of Waterloo
James Danckert
University of Waterloo
Bio

Published 2024-04-01

Keywords

  • Psychology,
  • Boredom,
  • Interoception,
  • Self-Awareness,
  • Alexithymia

How to Cite

Trudel, C., Budge, J. C., Pasqualini, D., & Danckert, J. (2024). Interoception and Boredom Proneness: A Novel Finding and a Call for Research. Journal of Boredom Studies, (2). Retrieved from https://boredomsociety.com/jbs/index.php/journal/article/view/23

Copyright (c) 2024 Chantal Trudel, Joshua C. Budge, Daniela Pasqualini, James Danckert

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Boredom proneness has been previously shown to be associated with higher levels of alexithymia, the inability to accurately label and represent one’s affective states. One prominent model of affective regulation suggests that we make use of interoceptive signals to predict the affective outcomes of intended actions. Given recent neuroimaging work implicating the anterior insular cortex in boredom, a region known to be critical for interoceptive processing, we explored the relations between alexithymia, interoception, and boredom proneness. Results showed strong relations with boredom proneness and attention to interoceptive signals. There were hints that the highly boredom prone also struggle to make sense of those interoceptive signals, however these were not prominent predictors of boredom proneness in regressions. We discuss the results and potential future experiments to explore the relation between boredom proneness and interoceptive processing.

PDF HTML

References

  1. Bagby, R. M., Parker, J. D., and Taylor, G. J. (1994). The Twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale—I. Item Selection and Cross-validation of the Factor Structure. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 38(1), 23–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(94)90005-1
  2. Bambrah, V., Moynihan, A. B., and Eastwood, J. D. (2023). Self-focused but Lacking Self-knowledge: The Relation Between Boredom and Self-perception. Journal of Boredom Studies, 1. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7612345
  3. Barrett, L. F., and Simmons, W. K. (2015). Interoceptive Predictions in the Brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(7), 419–429. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3950
  4. Buckner, R. L., Andrews‐Hanna, J. R., and Schacter, D. L. (2008). The Brain’s Default Network: Anatomy, Function, and Relevance to Disease. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1124(1), 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1440.011
  5. Carriere, J. S., Cheyne, J. A., and Smilek, D. (2008). Everyday Attention Lapses and Memory Failures: The Affective Consequences of Mindlessness. Consciousness and Cognition, 17(3), 835–847. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2007.04.008
  6. Cheyne, J. A., Carriere, J. S., and Smilek, D. (2006). Absent-mindedness: Lapses of Conscious Awareness and Everyday Cognitive Failures. Consciousness and Cognition, 15(3), 578–592. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2005.11.009
  7. Craig, A. (2009). How Do You Feel—Now? The Anterior Insula and Human Awareness. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(1), 59–70. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2555
  8. Dal Mas, D. E., and Wittmann, B. C. (2017). Avoiding Boredom: Caudate and Insula Activity Reflects Boredom-elicited Purchase Bias. Cortex, 92, 57–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.03.008
  9. Danckert, J., and Merrifield, C. (2018). Boredom, Sustained Attention and the Default Mode Network. Experimental Brain Research, 236, 2507–2518. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4617-5
  10. Danckert, J., and Elpidorou, A. (2023). In Search of Boredom: Beyond a Functional Account. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 27(5), 494–507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.02.002
  11. Danckert, J., Mugon, J., Struk, A., and Eastwood, J. (2018). Boredom: What Is It Good for? In H. C. Lench (Ed.), The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us (pp. 93–119). Springer.
  12. Drody, A., Yakobi, O., and Danckert, J. (2024). Boredom on the Brain: What Can Neuroimaging Tell Us about Boredom? In M. Bieleke, W. Wolff and M. Martarelli (Eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of Boredom (pp. 178–190). Routledge.
  13. Eastwood, J. D., Cavaliere, C., Fahlman, S. A., and Eastwood, A. E. (2007). A Desire for Desires: Boredom and Its Relation to Alexithymia. Personality and Individual Differences, 42(6), 1035–1045. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.08.027
  14. Eastwood, J. D., Frischen, A., Fenske, M. J., and Smilek, D. (2012). The Unengaged Mind: Defining Boredom in Terms of Attention. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(5), 482–495. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612456044
  15. Elpidorou, A. (2014). The Bright Side of Boredom. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1245. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01245
  16. Farmer, R., and Sunberg (1986). Boredom Proneness—The Development and Correlates of a New Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 50(1), 4–17. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa5001_2
  17. Fiene, L., Ireland, M. J., and Brownlow, C. (2018). The Interoception Sensory Questionnaire (ISQ): A Scale to Measure Interoceptive Challenges in Adults. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 48(10), 3354–3366. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3600-3
  18. Gana, K., Broc, G., and Bailly, N. (2019). Does the Boredom Proneness Scale Capture Traitness of Boredom? Results from a Six-year Longitudinal Trait-state-occasion Model. Personality and Individual Differences, 139, 247–253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.11.030
  19. Garfinkel, S. N., Seth, A. K., Barrett, A. B., Suzuki, K., and Critchley, H. D. (2015). Knowing Your Own Heart: Distinguishing Interoceptive Accuracy from Interoceptive Awareness. Biological Psychology, 104, 65–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2014.11.004
  20. Goldberg, Y. K., Eastwood, J. D., LaGuardia, J., and Danckert, J. (2011). Boredom: An Emotional Experience Distinct from Apathy, Anhedonia, or Depression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 30, 647–666. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1521/jscp.2011.30.6.647
  21. Gorelik, D., and Eastwood, J. D. (2024). Trait Boredom as a Lack of Agency: A Theoretical Model and a New Assessment Tool. Assessment, 31(2), 321–334. https://doi.org/10.1177/10731911231161780
  22. Gu, X., Hof, P. R., Friston, K. J., and Fan, J. (2013). Anterior Insular Cortex and Emotional Awareness. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 521(15), 3371–3388. https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fcne.23368
  23. Hickman, L., Seyedsalehi, A., Cook, J. L., Bird, G., and Murphy, J. (2020). The Relationship Between Heartbeat Counting and Heartbeat Discrimination: A Meta-analysis. Biological Psychology, 156, 107949. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2020.107949
  24. Hogeveen, J., Bird, G., Chau, A., Krueger, F., and Grafman, J. (2016). Acquired Alexithymia Following Damage to the Anterior Insula. Neuropsychologia, 82, 142–148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.01.021
  25. Hunter, A., and Eastwood, J. D. (2018). Does State Boredom Cause Failures of Attention? Examining the Relations Between Trait Boredom, State Boredom, and Sustained Attention. Experimental Brain Research, 236, 2483–2492. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4749-7
  26. Isacescu, J., Struk, A. A., and Danckert, J. (2017). Cognitive and Affective Predictors of Boredom Proneness. Cognition and Emotion, 31(8), 1741–1748. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2016.1259995
  27. Isacescu, J., and Danckert, J. (2018). Exploring the Relationship Between Boredom Proneness and Self-control in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Experimental Brain Research, 236, 2493–2505. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4674-9
  28. Longarzo, M., D'Olimpio, F., Chiavazzo, A., Santangelo, G., Trojano, L., and Grossi, D. (2015). The Relationships Between Interoception and Alexithymic Trait. The Self-Awareness Questionnaire in Healthy Subjects. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1149. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01149
  29. Malkovsky, E., Merrifield, C., Goldberg, Y., and Danckert, J. (2012). Exploring the Relationship Between Boredom and Sustained Attention. Experimental Brain Research, 221, 59–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-012-3147-z
  30. Mehling, W. E., Acree, M., Stewart, A., Silas, J., and Jones, A. (2018). The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness, Version 2 (MAIA-2). PloS one, 13(12), e0208034. https://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0208034
  31. Meier, M., Martarelli, C. S., and Wolff, W. (2024). Is Boredom a Source of Noise and/or a Confound in Behavioral Science Research? Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02851-7
  32. Menon, V., and Uddin, L. Q. (2010). Saliency, Switching, Attention and Control: A Network Model of Insula Function. Brain Structure and Function, 214, 655–667. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-010-0262-0
  33. Mugon, J., Struk, A., and Danckert, J. (2018). A Failure to Launch: Regulatory Modes and Boredom Proneness. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1126. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01126
  34. Murphy, J., Brewer, R., Plans, D., Khalsa, S. S., Catmur, C., and Bird, G. (2019). Testing the Independence of Self-reported Interoceptive Accuracy and Attention. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73(1), 115–133. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021819879826
  35. Namkung, H., Kim, S. H., and Sawa, A. (2018). The Insula: An Underestimated Brain Area in Clinical Neuroscience, Psychiatry, and Neurology. Trends in Neuroscience, 40(4), 200–207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2017.02.002
  36. Olusegun, A. M., Dikko, H. G., and Gulumbe, S. U. (2015). Identifying the Limitation of Stepwise Selection for Variable Selection in Regression Analysis. American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics, 4(5), 414–419. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20150405.22
  37. Pattyn, N., Neyt, X., Henderickx, D., and Soetens, E. (2008). Psychophysiological Investigation of Vigilance Decrement: Boredom or Cognitive Fatigue? Physiology & Behavior, 93(1–2), 369–378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2007.09.016
  38. Plans, D., Ponzo, S., Morelli, D., Cairo, M., Ring, C., Keating, C. T. and Bird, G. (2021). Measuring Interoception: The Phase Adjustment Task. Biological Psychology, 165, 108171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108171
  39. Shields, S. A., Mallory, M. E., and Simon, A. (1989). The Body Awareness Questionnaire: Reliability and Validity. Journal of Personality Assessment, 53(4), 802–815. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1207/s15327752jpa5304_16
  40. Smith, G. (2018). Step away from Stepwise. Journal of Big Data, 5(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-018-0143-6
  41. Struk, A. A., Carriere, J. S., Cheyne, J. A., and Danckert, J. (2017). A Short Boredom Proneness Scale: Development and Psychometric Properties. Assessment, 24(3), 346–359. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191115609996
  42. Tangney, B., Baumeister, R. F., and Boone, A. L. (2004). High Self-control Predicts Good Adjustment, Less Pathology, Better Grades, and Interpersonal Success. Journal of Personality, 72(2), 272–322. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3506.2004.00263.x
  43. Tze, V. M., Daniels, L. M., and Klassen, R. M. (2016). Evaluating the Relationship Between Boredom and Academic Outcomes: A Meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 28(1), 119–144. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-015-9301-y
  44. Uddin, L. Q. (2015). Salience Processing and Insular Cortical Function and Dysfunction. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(1), 55–61. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3857
  45. Ulrich, M., Keller, J., Hoenig, K., Waller, C., and Grön, G. (2014). Neural Correlates of Experimentally Induced Flow Experiences. Neuroimage, 86, 194–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.08.019
  46. Van Tilburg, W. A. P., and Igou, E. R. (2011). On Boredom and Social Identity: A Pragmatic Meaning-regulation Approach. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 1679–1691. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167211418530
  47. Wang, X., Zhang, R., Chen, Z., Zhou, F., and Feng, T. (2021). Neural Basis Underlying the Relation Between Boredom Proneness and Procrastination: The Role of Functional Coupling Between Precuneus/Cuneus and Posterior Cingulate Cortex. Neuropsychologia, 161, 107994. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107994