Our Research

What are we researching?

Our brain interprets bodily signals such as hunger or heartbeats through a process called interoception.

We’re studying this process and how it links to mental health in males and females.

This study lasts for 22–35 days. If you have a menstrual cycle, the length of your participation will depend on the length of your menstrual cycle. If you don’t have a menstrual cycle, you’ll be randomly allocated a study length between 22 and 35 days.

Why is this research important?

1. Differences in interoception between males and females are not fully understood.‍ ‍

2. The only way we can understand how people experience changes in their physical and mental health is by tracking these changes across time.

You would be contributing to the first study of its kind to do this.

Getting Involved

What does the study involve?

Based in smartphone applications exclusively used for this study, people taking part in the research will complete short questionnaires, tasks, and ratings on a daily basis. 

This app-based study is divided into 2 phases:  

Phase 1

You'll start with a short screening questionnaire to see if you’re eligible to take part in the study. If you qualify, we’ll invite you to a 1-hour online session where we’ll introduce you to the INSYNC Study!

We’ll get you set up with:

  1. How the study works

  2. Enrolling into the smartphone apps

  3. The tasks that will measure your ability to match tones to your heartbeats, or match tones to a pulsing circle on the screen.

For people with a menstrual cycle, you will additionally learn how to track your cervical mucus throughout the study.

You’ll also have the opportunity to ask any questions.


Phase 2

Once you’re enrolled in the study, you’ll use smartphone apps to complete short questionnaires, tasks, and ratings. Don’t worry - it only takes 3-5 minutes a day on average.

Every 4 days, you will complete tasks on your phone for up to 50 minutes.

You’ll take part in the study for 22–35 days.

  • If you have a menstrual cycle, you’ll take part for the length of your cycle (i.e the length of time between one period and the next.

  • If you don’t have a menstrual cycle, you’ll be randomly allocated a study length between 22 and 35 days.

Take a peek at the sections below for an idea of what’s involved!

  • You’ll answer some questionnaires roughly once per week. These will ask about things like your mental health, physical symptoms, and emotions.

  • The app will prompt you three times a day to briefly rate things like your bodily changes or your mood.

    For instance, we might ask you ‘How stressed were you feeling in the last 5 minutes?’ and you would respond by selecting a response on a scale (Not stressed at all - Very stressed).

  • Roughly once a week, you’ll complete a short interoception task. This might involve matching auditory tones to your heartbeat or syncing a tone with a flashing shape. Using special technology, your smartphone’s flash and camera will measure your heart rate!

  • After the first few weeks, if you have a menstrual cycle AND do not take hormonal contraception/treatments, you will be invited to participate for another 4 months where you will track your menstrual cycles.

    We’ll ask you basic questions about your menstrual history (e.g. when you had your first period, any premenstrual symptoms).

    You will learn how to check and report your cervical mucus changes i.e. understanding changes in discharge. Once we have data on two menstrual cycles, you'll continue with daily and weekly tasks e.g. menstrual tracking, questionnaires (mental health, interoception) and an interoception task.

    You can also share pre-existing menstrual cycle data with us (if you already track them in a different app such as Clue, Apple or Flo). This will allow us to understand differences in menstrual cycle experiences.

    Over time, you can access personalised health insights about sleep and other habits!

Check My Eligibility

Click the button below to sign up/find out more!

  1. You’ll read an information sheet.

  2. If you decide to join the study, you’ll confirm your participation by filling in a consent form. 

  3. You’ll then be taken to a screening survey which assess your eligibility for the study!

Info/Sign Up

This study has received favourable ethical approval from the University of Surrey Ethics Committee (ref number: FHMS 23-24 203 EGA/ERM ID 630)