Attending to Body and Mind: Does Interoceptive Attention Compete with Controlled and Negative Automatic Thoughts?

Interoceptive attention reflects the proportion of attentional resources an individual typically allocates to physiological signals. It has, however, yet to be established how interoceptive attention relates with other forms of internally focused attention, such as those to streams of internal thought (e.g., mind-wandering, reflection, worry), and whether these factors compete for limited attentional resources at the trait and state level. Across two Studies (n = 222, n = 109), we isolated two factors from several established measures of attention to thoughts, these reflected negative automatic thoughts (i.e., worry, rumination), and controlled thoughts (i.e., deliberate mind-wandering, reflection). In subsequent regression analyses, reported negative automatic thoughts, but not controlled thoughts, were a significant positive predictor of interoceptive attention, even when controlling for perceived interoceptive ability. This significant relationship was, however, accounted for by trait anxiety when included in the model. To further test whether this correlation was replicated at the state-level, a novel monotonous responding task with three-dimensional attention probes was used, which measures the reported allocation of finite attentional resources between irrelevant thoughts, physical sensations, and the responding to the monotonous task. The results revealed a positive correlation again, with reported attention to thoughts and body signals increasing concurrently across the task, at the expense of attention to the task. The results contradict the idea of a competitive relationship, as individuals who report attending to their internal thoughts more also report attending to their physical sensations more, with some evidence showing that this may be due to underlying trait anxiety.