Bipolar disorder, interoception and emotion recognition
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring bipolar disorder and its relationships with interoception and emotion recognition (Worktribe Reference: 420322)
IRAS ID
298130
Contact name
Nadzeya Svirydzenka
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
De Montfort University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
420322, DMU Worktribe
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 2 days
Research summary
This study aims to investigate emotional experience in bipolar disorder (BD) from a physiological and cognitive perspective with the former being of particular relevance. The physiological perspective proposes emotions are generated from organs such as the heart where research has shown different rhythms associated with different emotions. The cognitive processing of emotions will also be investigated in this study to support the existing evidence of emotional processing differences using a facial emotion recognition (FER) task whilst accounting for a range of important variables.
The physiological perspective of emotion has not been looked at objectively before in BD despite there being overwhelming evidence to support differences in this function in depression. To assess physiological functioning, it is possible to assess signals internally using interoception. Interoception is a construct concerned with the ability to perceive signals from within the body. The heartbeat counting task is a frequently used measure of interoception that assesses the ability to feel heartbeats. For participants that exhibit poor perception of signals from within, studies have suggested there is a blunted emotional experience. The blunting of emotional experiences impacts social functioning and interpersonal relationships negatively and this can have a profound impact on recovery in mental health and daily functioning.
This study aims to recruit a sample with bipolar disorder to identify if differences exist in the experience of emotions from both perspectives similar to results in depression. An at-risk sample is used to highlight potential developmental markers of emotional processing differences and a comparison control sample. Participants will complete validated self-report questionnaires and FER, self-assessment manikin, and heartbeat counting tasks. A questionnaire will be sent to the clinical participant’s healthcare team to collect data relating to their BD diagnosis. A pilot study suggests the time of completion for the experiment is between 60-75 minutes.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2
REC reference
22/NS/0132
Date of REC Opinion
23 Dec 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion