Interoception and emotions in psychopathology

The doctoral thesis project investigates the role of interoception in emotion regulation and its impact on psychopathology. In Chapter 1, the concept of interoception is introduced, along with how altered interoception is implicated in various mental disorders. This underscores the importance of considering interoceptive processes as both potential vulnerability and maintenance factors in psychopathology. In Chapter 2, a network-analysis study is presented to explore how Interoceptive Sensibility (assessed via the MAIA-2) and Anxiety Sensitivity (assessed via the ASI-3) relate to specific symptom dimensions (assessed via the SCL-90) in a nonclinical sample. The findings indicate that the tendency to negatively interpret anxiety-related bodily sensations correlates with a broad range of psychopathological symptoms. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on the role of moral emotions—specifically altruistic and deontological guilt—in two clinical populations known to exhibit alterations in guilt processing: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). Using an experimental paradigm (the Temptation to Lie Card Game, TLCG, Panasiti et al, 2011), which reveals participants’ propensity to lie for personal or other-oriented gain, these studies investigate how inducing either altruistic or deontological guilt influences moral behavior. Overall, this work highlights the complexity of interoception and moral emotions (particularly guilt) in various psychopathological contexts. While the network analysis underscores the key, transdiagnostic role of Anxiety Sensitivity, the experimental studies on OCD and ASPD demonstrate how distinct forms of guilt can produce markedly different effects on moral behavior. These results open new avenues for therapeutic approaches that more precisely integrate interoception and the emotional nuances of guilt, ultimately enhancing both the effectiveness and personalization of clinical interventions.