Mother Knows Best? Maternal Interoception Aids Interpretation Of Children's Heart Rate

Interoception, at the conscious level, involves the perception of shifts in the body’s internal signals in response to fluctuations in the internal and external environments. Being interoceptive, termed interoceptive ability, allows one to interpret their physiology and subsequently make changes to regulate bodily responses. Most research, however, examines how interoceptive ability aids the interpretation of one's own needs rather than the needs of others. The present study uniquely examines how the ability to interpret one’s own physiology relates to the ability to interpret physiology in another individual. In this case, we examine how a mother’s ability to perceive changes in her physiology relates to, predicts, and potentially aids perception of her preschool child’s heart rate. Current measures of interoception are flawed, and there is a need to develop improved interoception methodologies. The present study introduces a novel method, which involves use of a wearable device that provides real-time heart rate data from the child, thereby allowing insight into the accuracy of their mother’s perceptions. Here, we coin the term mother’s objective maternal interoceptive accuracy (MOMIA) to describe the mother’s objective ability to accurately interpret her child’s HR. While the device records the child’s HR, the mother holds a smartphone with an application developed for Bluetooth communication with the device. The child engages in several tasks while their mother reports her perceptions of her child's HR, as well as her confidence. Results found that a mother’s certainty in her child’s mental states significantly relates to her ability to accurately interpret her child’s HR; however, a mother’s confidence in her perceptions of her child’s HR is unrelated to the accuracy of her perceptions. Further, results indicated that a mother’s certainty in her child’s mental states is a significant predictor of her ability to accurately interpret her child’s HR, as well as her child’s emotion-behavioral development. Follow-up analyses additionally found that a mother’s tendency to notice her physiology and perceived closeness to her child does significantly predict her ability to accurately interpret her child’s HR in contexts of low physiological arousal. However, a mother’s ability to accurately interpret her child’s physiology in contexts of high arousal is uniquely predictive of her child’s emotion-behavioral development. Overall, this study incorporates two important features: maternal interoception and the use of a novel monitoring device. Our results provide novel direction for not only dyadic interoception, but also the importance of mentalizing others' mental states in order to understand their physiology and support their needs. Future research should consider developing interventions that aim to improve maternal interoception and educate parents on the significance of both healthy body awareness and mindfulness of children’s mental states to support emotion-behavioral development.