Interoception is the ability to recognise/perceive internal bodily signals (e.g. one’s heartbeat,
breathing, and pain). Poor interoception is associated with alexithymia (difficulty recognising one’s own emotions), and both are associated with poor mental health. Alexithymia and atypical interoception are common in autism; many autistic individuals struggle to perceive their own emotions and internal sensations. People with alexithymia/poor interoception also struggle to recognise others’ emotions, with implications for social relationships and mental health. It is unclear, however, whether these individuals also struggle to recognise others’ interoceptive states (breathlessness, pain, etc.) – an ability crucial for successful social interactions and providing care to others. The primary aim of this PhD is to investigate the links between recognition of one’s OWN emotions and interoceptive states, and recognition of OTHERS’ emotions and interoceptive states in autistic and non-autistic people. Autistic and non-autistic participants with low and high alexithymia will complete pre-exiting, validated tasks to assess their recognition of their own and others’ emotions, and their own and others’ interoceptive states, allowing the relationships between these four domains to be investigated. The secondary aim is to understand whether autism itself plays a role in these four domains, or whether recognition of own and others’ emotions and interoceptive states is explained by alexithymia and interoception in the same way as in non-autistic individuals. Finally, the PhD will investigate whether interoception can be improved through biofeedback training, and whether this improves recognition of one’s own emotions, and others’ emotions and interoception states, with implications for wellbeing and relationships