What biometric parameter corresponds to subjectively perceived heart rate?

Question

Sometimes I work up a pant and feel my heart pounding and racing and if you would ask me to guess my heart rate I might guess that it was over 90% of my personal max. But I look at my heart rate monitors and it is hardly the case.

Other times I am jogging and I can hardly even notice my heart beating at all, and subjectively my level of cardiac exertion feels quite underwhelming. Naturally then if I was asked to guess I would think that it is perhaps in the 50-70% range of my personal max, yet biometrically it doesn’t seem to be the case and in fact my heart rate monitor reports over 90%.

So there is clearly the phenomenon of objective heart rate which doesn’t necessarily correspond to subjective perception of heart rate.

What objectively measurable variable then would correspond to subjective perception of cardiac exertion?

Tldr: what makes us feel overwhelmed by cardio activity?

Answer 1

In the 1990 study, "Cardiodynamic determinants of heart perception" (translated from German), the authors begin the abstract by stating, "Subjective perception of one's heartbeat is augmented by psychological factors (stress, fear) as well as by physiological influences (e.g., physical work). It is still unclear on which cardiac or circulatory parameters the "signal" for cardiac perception is based." In the study "Heartbeat perception in depression", a moderately depressed group of people was less accurate in heartbeat perception than were both healthy volunteers and a more severely depressed group. In the 2010 study, "Accuracy of heartbeat perception is reflected in the amplitude of the heartbeat-evoked brain potential", the authors conclude that "the accuracy of heartbeat perception is reflected in the amplitude of the HEP", the HEP being the heart-evoked potential, the potential of a nerve signal from the heart to the brain. I have not read these papers.