Interoceptive awareness, anxiety and cardiovascular reactivity to isometric exercise

The present study was designed to investigate the relation between cardiovascular reactivity, trait anxiety and the interoceptive awareness. Eighteen male subjects underwent a heartbeat perception task and performed an isometric handgrip exercise. Subjects with high reactivity showed a higher degree of interoceptive awareness and trait anxiety suggesting that a habitually increased sympathetic outflow might be one variable contributing to the establishment of high interoceptive awareness and trait anxiety.