Open AccessEnhanced cardiac perception predicts impaired performance in the Iowa Gambling Task in patients with panic disorder
Author(s) -
Wölk Julian,
Sütterlin Stefan,
Koch Stefan,
Vögele Claus,
Schulz Stefan M.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
brain and behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 41
ISSN - 2162-3279
DOI - 10.1002/brb3.206
Subject(s) - iowa gambling task , panic disorder , perception , psychology , psychological intervention , task (project management) , everyday life , cognition , clinical psychology , psychiatry , anxiety , neuroscience , political science , management , law , economics
Objective Somatic marker theory predicts that somatic cues serve intuitive decision making; however, cardiovascular symptoms are threat cues for patients with panic disorder ( PD ). Therefore, enhanced cardiac perception may aid intuitive decision making only in healthy individuals, but impair intuitive decision making in PD patients. Methods PD patients and age‐ and sex‐matched volunteers without a psychiatric diagnosis ( n = 17, respectively) completed the Iowa Gambling Task ( IGT ) as a measure of intuitive decision making. Interindividual differences in cardiac perception were assessed with a common mental‐tracking task. Results In line with our hypothesis, we found a pattern of opposing associations (Fisher's Z = 1.78, P = 0.04) of high cardiac perception with improved IGT ‐performance in matched control‐participants ( r = 0.36, n = 14) but impaired IGT ‐performance in PD patients ( r = −0.38, n = 13). Conclusion Interoceptive skills, typically assumed to aid intuitive decision making, can have the opposite effect in PD patients who experience interoceptive cues as threatening, and tend to avoid them. This may explain why PD patients frequently have problems with decision making in everyday life. Screening of cardiac perception may help identifying patients who benefit from specifically tailored interventions.