9. Assessment of the Heartbeat Evoked Potential as a Neurofeedback Parameter in Interoceptive-Attention Tasks

Heartbeat-evoked potentials (HEPs), an electrophysiological measure of interoceptive processing, are sensitive to changes in attention to bodily sensation and anxiety. HEPs may provide a biofeedback parameter to augment behavioral intervention on bodily distress. HEPs are typically observed as event-related potentials that are time-locked to the cardiac cycle and averaged across minutes of EEG recording. While averaging enhances the signal-to-noise ratio, reliance on this strategy is an obstacle to the real-time demands of biofeedback.