No. 2 (2024)
Articles

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

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://www.boredomsociety.com/jbs/index.php/journal/article/view/23

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.

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