Repeated Interoceptive Exposure in Individuals With High and Low Anxiety Sensitivity.

Holtz et al. (2019) asked adults with high anxiety sensitivity to hyperventilate in a lab. They also tested adults with low anxiety sensitivity for comparison.

The team measured eye-blink startle right after the first hyperventilation session. They repeated the same task one week later to see if the body reaction changed.

After the first session, high-anxiety adults startled harder than low-anxiety adults. One week later, the high-anxiety group no longer startled more; their defensive response had faded.

In plain words, a single repeat of the scary body sensation was enough to habituate the startle jump.

CHARNEY et al. (1965) first showed that monkeys can treat an internal gut signal like a cue for food. Katharina’s team moves the same idea to humans and shows the signal itself can lose its punch through exposure.

Dwyer et al. (2023) found that autistic kids do NOT habituate to sounds in the lab. The new study shows anxious adults DO habituate to body cues. The difference is not a flaw; it reflects two clinical groups and two senses.

Petitpierre et al. (2023) tracked olfactory habituation in kids with profound disabilities and saw the same downward curve after a handful of sniffs. Together, the papers say habituation curves can be mapped in almost any modality if you repeat the stimulus.

If a client fears panic-like sensations, you can test one brief interoceptive exposure in session and schedule a quick repeat a week later. The second round may already show calmer heart rate, less flinch, and more willingness to stay in the task. No extra gear is needed—just paced breathing and a simple startle probe or pulse check.