The role of interoceptive awareness in shaping the relationship between desire thinking and cigarette consumption

Abstract

Interoception, the ability to sense and interpret bodily sensations, has recently emerged as a crucial factor in substance use disorders, including smoking. However, the role of interoceptive awareness in tobacco use remains poorly understood. The relationship between interoceptive ability and addictive behavior is complex, and attempting to conceptualize it as a linear association is unlikely to fully capture the complexity of the mechanisms underlying cravings and urges. We hypothesized that the role played by interoceptive awareness in tobacco use is deeply linked to desire thinking, that is, the conscious and voluntary cognitive process orienting to prefigure images, information, and memories about positive target-related experiences. Desire thinking is typically observed in addiction, where it may contribute to interpreting specific bodily sensations, such as the perceived need for a cigarette. From this perspective, the physiological impact and inclination toward desire thinking contribute to a higher daily cigarette consumption, particularly in situations of low interoceptive awareness. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the physiological activation, the tendency toward desire thinking about smoking, cigarette consumption, and the interoceptive abilities of smoking volunteers. Through a moderation analysis, we showed that desire thinking about smoking predicts a higher number of cigarettes per day in individuals with lower interoceptive awareness (p < .05). These findings suggest that the relationship between desire thinking and interoceptive awareness is a fundamental component of tobacco use, highlighting the importance of taking into account the bodily feedback deriving from the cognitive representation of smoking in addiction research and therapy.

Keywords: Addiction; Desire thinking; Heart rate variability; Interoception; Tobacco use.