Paul Jenkinson

UCL – University College London UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

We are recruiting a new PI at the FIL @imagingneuroucl.bsky.social, Associate or Full Professor. This is an amazing place to do cognitive neuroscience, in the heart of London. If you or someone you know might be interested, please pass it on. #neuroskyence

www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Game changer!

You're on fire!

Thanks Gavin. I think we'll do that. Best to speed up the rejection process 😆

#AcademicPublishing #MetaAnalysis #PeerReview #SlowScience

Searches are now 12 months old—submitted before they were—but delays like this risk reviewers flagging outdated data.

How are we supposed to maintain timely reporting standards when journals don’t?

What shoulld we do? Withdraw? Wait it out? Anyone dealt with this?

Help and advice needed please Bluesky community!

We submitted a meta-analysis over a month ago. It's still “with editor.” Three follow-up emails sent. Admin says they’ll chase. Still Nothing.

Image of paper title “testing the tripartite influence model among pregnant women”

New paper on body image during pregnancy! Free to download for 50 days kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

Skegness, one of your absolute finest people right here. Buy her a drink whenever you see her.

8/
We hope this review sparks new research into the embodied consequences of stroke—and how restoring internal regulation might support better recovery.

Co-authored with: Salvato, Bassolino, Beccherle, Vianello, Fotopoulou, Bottini & Moro

#Stroke #Interoception #Allostasis #Neuroscience

7/
🧠 Our conclusion:
Stroke disrupts internal bodily regulation in ways that matter—but the field is just scratching the surface.
We call for:
▪️ Standardised interoceptive measures
▪️ Longitudinal studies
▪️ Mechanistic insights
▪️ Rehab strategies targeting interoception

6/
📉 Allostatic load—essentially the long-term physiological cost of stress—has not specifically been characterised and studied post-stroke. The one study that did measure it found that higher load predicted worse cognitive outcomes, especially in marginalised populations.

5/
🧠 Interoceptive changes were often linked to poorer outcomes:
▪️ Lower functional recovery
▪️ Cognitive and emotional challenges
▪️ Disturbed body ownership
Insular and somatosensory lesions were most commonly implicated.

4/
What did we find?
Interoceptive deficits post-stroke are common. Disrupted domains include:
✔️ Heartbeat detection
✔️ Breathing awareness
✔️ Temperature and touch perception
✔️ Fatigue and hunger
✔️ Bladder and muscle sensation

3/
🔍 We reviewed 39 studies:
▪️ 38 focused on interoception after stroke
▪️ Only 1 (!) specifically characterised and examined allostatic load.
That gap alone speaks volumes. We need to better understand the body’s complex internal regulation systems in stroke recovery research.

2/
Why this matters:
Interoception plays a key role in regulating internal bodily states. When the brain is damaged by stroke, this internal sense can be thrown off balance—impacting recovery, cognition, emotion, and quality of life. But how exactly? No one had mapped this—until now.

🧵1/
New preprint alert!

We just pre-printed a scoping review exploring how stroke disrupts interoception—our sense of the internal body—and its possible effects on allostatic load (the physiological toll of chronic stress).
🧠🫁🫀🧵
Read it here 👉 osf.io/preprints/ps...

a woman in a black top is smiling and says thank you ALT: a woman in a black top is smiling and says thank you

8/ We hope this meta-analysis lays a foundation for future research and clinical innovation.

Thanks to co-authors Rodolfo Leuzzi, Charlotte Dean, Aaron Clarke, Joanna Mash, and Keith Laws 🙏

📝 Read the preprint here:
🔗 osf.io/abep4

#interoception #depression #mentalhealth #OpenScience

7/ Implications?

🛠️ Interoceptive-based therapies should focus on regulation, self-trust, and metacognition—not just improving accuracy.

🧪 And future research should carefully choose tools that reflect adaptive vs. maladaptive interoceptive processes.

6/ We interpret this in line with Allostatic Self-Efficacy theory—depression may emerge when people lose confidence in their ability to regulate internal states.

🧩 These findings support a multidimensional model of interoception, where not all interoceptive tools are created equal.

5/ Between-group studies (depressed vs. controls) showed stronger effects than symptom-based correlations in healthy samples.

And interestingly, not all self-report tools agreed—MAIA showed strong links; others (like BPQ, BRQ) showed positive or mixed associations.

4/ This suggests that how people interpret and regulate their internal states—not just how accurately they detect them—is crucial in depression.

Regulatory & metacognitive interoceptive processes may be promising targets for intervention.

3/ We found a significant negative association between self-reported interoception and depression (r = -0.17). That is, poorer interoception = higher depression.

The effect was strongest for:

🧘‍♂️ Self-regulation

🎯 Attention regulation

🙏 Trusting bodily signals

2/ We conducted the first meta-analysis of self-reported interoception and depression—using 44 studies and data from over 18,000 participants.

We focused especially on the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA).

1/ Emerging theories suggest that depression may be linked to disruptions in how we perceive and regulate internal bodily signals—aka interoception.

But evidence has mostly focused on heartbeat accuracy tasks, with mixed results.

So what about subjective interoception?

🧠💔 New preprint alert!

We're excited to share our systematic review and meta-analysis on the relationship between self-reported interoception and depression.

📄 osf.io/abep4

🧵👇 A thread:

a woman from schitt 's creek is smiling and saying `` when one of us shines '' ALT: a woman from schitt 's creek is smiling and saying `` when one of us shines ''

Thanks to all my wonderful friends, colleagues and collaborators (most of which are all three) for helping me get to this position!

www.tinybluedotfoundation.org/research/pro...

I'm beyond thrilled, excited, and delighted to announce being awarded a 3-year Tiny Blue Dot Foundation grant to examine body image in adolescent girls & to develop a VR-based embodiment intervention for body image issues. Expect more info and post-doc and PhD adverts in the coming months 😀