Development and Validation of the Interoceptive States Vocalisations (ISV) and Interoceptive States Point Light Displays (ISPLD) databases

The ability to perceive others’ emotions and one’s own interoceptive states, have been the subject of extensive research. Very little work, however, has investigated the ability to recognise others’ interoceptive states, such as whether an individual is feeling breathless, nauseated, or fatigued. This is likely owing to the dearth of stimuli available for use in research studies, despite the clear relevance of this ability to social interaction and effective caregiving. This paper describes the development and validation of two stimulus sets for use in research into the perception of others’ interoceptive states. The Interoceptive States Vocalisations (ISV) database and the Interoceptive States Point Light Displays (ISPLD) database include 191 vocalisation and 159 point light display stimuli. Both stimulus sets underwent two phases of validation, and all stimuli were scored in terms of their quality and recognisability, using five different measures. The ISV also includes control stimuli featuring non-interoceptive vocalisations. Some interoceptive states were consistently recognised better than others, but variability was observed within, as well as between, stimulus categories. Stimuli are freely available for use in research, and are presented alongside all stimulus quality scores, in order for researchers to select the most appropriate stimuli based on individual research questions.