Interoception and Social Cognition in Chronic Low Back Pain: A Common Inference Disturbance? An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Aim: Lower interoceptive abilities are a characteristic of chronic pain conditions. Social support plays an important role in chronic low back pain (cLBP) but social cognitive skills have rarely been investigated. This study aimed to characterize interoceptive and social cognitive abilities in cLBP and to study the relationship between both domains that have been brought closer together by brain predictive coding models. Materials & methods: Twenty-eight patients with cLBP and 74 matched controls were included. Interoceptive accuracy (Heart Beat Perception Task), sensibility/awareness (Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness) and mental-states inference abilities (Mini-Social Cognition and Emotional Assessment) were assessed. Results: cLBP Patients had lower interoceptive accuracy and mentalizing performance. Conclusion: Less efficient interoceptive accuracy and mentalizing abilities were found in cLBP patients without correlation between these performances.

Lay abstract

Interoception, allowing to perceive body sensations such as heartbeats, has been reported to be decreased in chronic pain. This ability has been recently related to social cognition, because we need inferential mechanisms to decode others’ emotions or our own sensations. The link between interoception and social cognition in chronic pain, however, is unknown. We aimed to study key interoceptive & social abilities in 28 participants with chronic low back pain and 74 control participants. Participants with chronic low back pain had lower performance in some interoceptive and social cognitive dimensions, but performances in these domains were unrelated. Interoception should be a target for therapeutic interventions.

Keywords::

• chronic pain
• emotion recognition
• interoception
• low back pain
• social cognition

Supplementary material

Financial & competing interests disclosure

F Quesque is supported by the Région Haut de France. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.

Data sharing statement

Data available on request due to privacy/ethical restrictions.

Additional information

Funding

F Quesque is supported by the Region Haut de France. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.