Bodily Experience Research Articles

Addressing Disturbance in Bodily Experience After Ventricular Assist Device Implantation: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial of Curricular Psychological Support.

Disturbance in bodily experience (BE) after ventricular assist device (VAD) implantation is common. This study aims to investigate the effect of focused psychological support to improve BE in VAD patients. This national, multicenter, longitudinal study enrolled 140 VAD patients from four centers across Germany in a prospective, randomized controlled trial. Patients were randomized (1:1) to receive curricular and focused psychological intervention in the post-implantation step-down units after implantation (n = 70) or treatment as usual (n = 70). BE was assessed using the Bodily Experience Scale in VAD Patients (BE-S) after implantation (baseline) and followed up 12 months later. Data were analyzed using mixed-effects models. VAD patients with disturbance in BE (BE-S ≥ 2) after implantation (n = 43, 63.24%) benefit from the targeted intervention. Compared to the subsample of the control group (CG) patients with initial BE disturbance (n = 46, 69.7%), the intervention group (IG) displays a significantly stronger decrease from baseline to the 1-year follow-up (p = 0.01). Generally, women (p = 0.4) and emergently implanted patients (p = 0.24) show a smaller, albeit not significant, decrease in BE disturbance. All patients have high overall gratitude scores, which increase slightly but not significantly over time. The efficacy of targeted psychological support in reducing disturbance in BE among VAD patients is highlighted. Given the strong correlation between BE and other mental health domains, such as anxiety and depression, it is essential to address disturbances in BE to improve the overall mental health of VAD patients.

Investigating Embodiment in Oral Mnemonics within Japanese Music

An oral mnemonic system known as shōga (literally meaning “singing song”), which can be practised without a musical instrument, is an indispensable means for transmitting or representing melodies in Japanese traditional music genres. While it has come to be written as a kind of music notation as well, shōga is primarily the bodily experience that begins with imitating the master’s voice and movements in a one-on-one teaching scenario. This article aims to approach the nature of shōga-performing practices from both quantitative and qualitative angles, dealing especially with the case of a wind instrument in court music (gagaku). After discussions on shōga and the rhythmic properties of instrumental music in gagaku, sound/movement data will be examined and combined with interview results from a participating musician. The investigation reveals that a multi-angled knowledge of shōga practices can provide insight into the essence of rhythmic expression in Japanese music genres.

Negotiating uncertainties: care-seeking in an algorithmic society

This article examines how different layers of health-related uncertainties emerge and intersect in an algorithmic society. We aim to understand how people’s self-care practices co-evolve with digitalised health systems. Sweden...

EXPRESS: 'Some like it cold'. On the association between the physical and affective notion of warmth.

Various observations suggest a strong mental association between the physical and affective notion of warmth, possibly originating from early experiences with the parental figures. Behaviourally, this link could increase propensity to interact with, and bestow trust on, other individuals when prompted with warm primes. We investigated whether a similar phenomenon may follow the experience of coldness. Indeed, by evoking the idea of a rational, self-controlled person rather than that of an emotional one, the notion of 'cold' may elicit that of reliability, driving some individuals to behave more pro-socially in response to cold primes. To test this possibility, we collected a quantitative measure of the stereotypical 'warm=trustworthy' association from a sample of healthy volunteers (Exp1, N=50) and verified whether variability in this parameter predicts behavioural responses to thermal primes in an Investment Game (Exp2, N=32). An implicit link between qualities denoting trustworthiness and physical coldness (rather than warmth) did emerge in some participants. This variability affected responses at the Investment Game, confirming that intervening factors influence how bodily experiences translate into cognition. To further investigate the role of experience, linguistic and cultural factors, we compared responses to warm/cold primes of a thermally deafferented participant and healthy volunteers (Exp3, N=20). Her behaviour confirmed that incidental sensory information does not affect all individuals in the same way: previous knowledge and individual experience contribute to shaping the mental association between the physical and the affective notion of warmth/coldness. These findings provide novel insight into research on embodied processes relative to social concepts.

Embodied resonance in technology-mediated group music-making

ABSTRACT Digital technologies have significantly reshaped group music-making by introducing new collaborative opportunities while challenging embodied and synchronous interactions. This study explores how digital tools impact embodied interactions in musical contexts, focusing on their potential to both extend bodily experiences into digital spaces and risk diminishing the embodied essence of music. Applying Hartmut Rosa's theory of resonance and alienation, and integrating perspectives from sociology, phenomenology, and music cognition, the research underscores the importance of movement and somatic awareness in collective musical engagement. A case study involving an iPad ensemble in an educational setting illustrates both the affordances and limitations of these technologies. Findings indicate that while digital tools can improve accessibility and facilitate musical coordination, they may reduce the depth of embodied interaction. The study advocates for integrating physical, perceptual, and digital practices to foster resonant and meaningful musical experiences, emphasizing the need for embodied engagement in technology-mediated music education.

Feeling Old in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Abstract This article examines the lived experiences of the older body—the embodiment of old age—from the perspective of older people. It uses letters written from 1680 to 1820 by twenty-two women and men aged between sixty and eighty-nine, selected from a corpus of over 391 letter writers. We begin by exploring the embodied experiences discussed by older people, as well as their understanding of the relationship between these experiences and their later years. The article finds that old age was experienced as highly variable and was subject to an ongoing process of recalibration. Central to that process was the corporeality of the aging body as experienced in the context of a range of social factors. The corporeality of the body was a factor for all but was not always framed negatively or even situated in the context of aging. The article then turns to the responses of older people to the life-stage of old age. The article finds them self-directed and proactive in continuing to live well. This is significant evidence for a self-consciously active, engaged, and embodied old age in early modernity. These older letter writers tended not to disavow old age but to accommodate and even embrace it.

Is nature exposure in autistic adults associated with more positive body image?

A growing body of evidence suggests that exposure to natural environments is associated with more positive body image, but such work has invariably centred the experiences of neurotypical adults and bodies. To rectify this oversight, we examined whether direct and indirect (i.e., mediational) pathways between nature exposure and an index of positive body image (i.e., body appreciation) are significant in autistic adults. A total of 303 autistic adults (age M = 36.69, range 18-75 years) from the United Kingdom completed an online survey that included measures of nature exposure, body appreciation, self-compassion, and nature connectedness, as well as sociodemographic variables. Structural equation modeling was used to test a hypothesised parallel mediation model in which self-compassion and connectedness to nature, respectively, mediated the association between nature exposure and body appreciation. Results showed that connectedness to nature, but not self-compassion, mediated the relationship between nature exposure and body appreciation. This finding was robust to sensitivity analyses and consistent across participants who identified as women and men. These results suggest that nature exposure is associated with more positive body image in autistic adults, which practitioners may find useful in designing population-specific nature-based interventions.

An Antidote to the Foetal Image? The Role of Creative Performance Counterprotest in Contemporary Abortion Activism

How can pro-choice activists counteract the hegemony of the foetal image which has, for decades, served as a highly effective tool for anti-abortion activists worldwide? Via qualitative interviews and secondary data analysis, this article analyses the work of two Irish ‘pro-choice’ activist groups, Radical Queers Resist<i> </i>and Angels for Choice – active in the campaign to repeal the constitutional abortion ban in 2018 – to argue that creative, performance counterprotests serve to counteract the hegemony of the foetal image in three ways. Firstly, by using their bodies to ‘block’ graphic foetal imagery exhibits, pro-choice activists reclaim political and affective territory and contest the representation of abortion in these images as a ‘violent’ or ‘unnatural’ act. Secondly, their use of specific protest objects and costumes – in this case, LGBTQ flags and white angel costumes – offer an alternative visual and moral framing which destigmatises and reconstitutes abortion, in this case, as a cornerstone of sexual freedom and as a ‘divine right’. Lastly, this article argues that creative performance counterprotests provide an effective challenge to the foetal image because they focalise a new body-ontology; one which dislodges the ‘object-body’ of the foetus and prioritises the ‘lived’ bodily experience of women and abortion-seekers, at the centre of contemporary abortion rights debates.

Feeling out of it: Displacement, disengagement and dispossession in experiences of brain fog

This article is an attempt to establish the significance of being ‘out of it’ for geographical thought that both troubles and broadens how we think about bodily experience, as well as an invitation to geographers to take this thinking forward in pluralistic ways. The first part situates being out of it in relation to three classic geographical concepts – place, practice, and power. It explains how experiences of being out of it create opportunities for rethinking displacement, disengagement, and dispossession as affective concerns, beyond their more familiar political economy purview. The second part explores one specific manifestation of being out of it by drawing on a literary account of brain fog to broaden geographical understandings of displacement, disengagement, and dispossession as specifically cognitive affective concerns. Attending to this overlooked form of embodiment complicates how we think about subjectivity in geography, it spurs ethical dilemmas about how to respond to those who are out of it, and it raises fundamental questions about what it is to participate in social, political and economic life.

THE INTERESTING: PHILOSOPHICAL THEMATIZATION THROUGH A MASK AND A PUPPET

The interesting has rarely become a subject of special philosophical study, due to the belonging of the concept to the domains of economics, epistemology and aesthetics simultaneously. The Kantian perspective implied that interest was a violent interiorization of experience, working with sensitivity and irritability, so the beautiful was isolated from interest, and the sublime was even opposed to it. But in philosophy after Kant a different conception of interest appears, not in connection with sensitivity, but with the medium of that sensitivity. Interest is above all energy, the finding of a thing in action, but the initial point of entry into this energy was not specified. It was possible to speak of the stability of interest as a special status of the body, or of the change of interest as a certain economy of things, but no general theory of the interesting was established. The status of the interesting has not been fully clarified, as shown by the contradictions in the thematization of the interesting in special articles by Arthur Schopenhauer and Jakob Golosovker. The most convincing attempt to explain interest was made by Lev Vygotsky, combining the critique of voluntarism in German transcendentalism and the critique of entailment in psychoanalysis. But Vygotsky’s approach is restricted to social psychology and is not compatible with Kant’s authentic formulation of the problems. We propose to understand the interesting as an effect of social practices interpreted through the mask and the puppet. The puppet is the self-identity of the thing, revealing its artificiality and intendedness. The mask is a rupture of this identity, a constant engagement with social processes and acts of social cognition. Although both principles, masks and puppets, are related to mimesis, the puppet belongs to the realm of creationist representations, the creation of a social and individual world out of nothing, while the mask belongs to the realm of mythological and theatrical representations, and constitutes a code of social reflection up to the present day. A close reading of Arthur Schopenhauer’s and Jakob Golosovker’s works on the interesting showed that the motif of the mask and the puppet is present in these works, but implicitly. The very idea of an artificial body was not brought to a conclusion; the focus was on the mechanisms of decision-making, but not on the mechanisms of generating any object as artificial. This showed an acceptance of the Kantian distinction between theoretical and practical reason, which does not have in mind bodily experience as the experience of generating singular situations. But the mask and the puppet were thus interpreted as singularities. Thus Schopenhauer speaks of the singular face of phenomena, in which all our social masks become indistinguishable, but denotes itself only by the moment of artificiality of those first conclusions we draw about the contemplated. Golosovker identifies the mask with the procedures of knowing and reading, in this sense maskedness is integral to interest, whereas with the doll begins the fragmentation of the cognition of the social world into episodes and characters. In this way, both the puppet and the mask appear not as objects of dedicated philosophical analysis, but as effects of the transition from the fasinating contemplation of nature or a work of art to conclusions about the actual ordering of social life. The mask and the puppet are sustained by the act of initial disappointment, which is then replaced by reflection and theoretical conclusions that narrow the concept of the interesting and do not permit the formulation of a consistent theory of it. We insist that the entrance to the interesting is the acceptance of one’s mask as originally given, as a social experience that one has, according to Lev Vygotsky’s conclusions, at all stages of personal development. The concept of autocommunication is also involved as a justification of such an attitude to one’s givenness, which allows one to take into account both the rules of cognition and the social framework of cognition in the actions of other people. This study shows the productivity of aesthetic studies of the puppet and mask for understanding interest as a necessary moment of individual and social cognition.

Affect

Affect refers to sensations and physiological shifts in intensity that may or may not formalise into conceptually distinct and collectively recognized feelings. Compared to emotions, which anthropologists see as feelings embedded in sociolinguistic concepts like love, anger, jealousy, han (Korean for sadness-grief), song (Ifaluk for justified anger), or hygge (Danish and Norwegian for cosiness), affects are conceived as more fluid. Although registered through biological and bodily sensation, affects are also culturally conditioned and can, in turn, strongly influence sociocultural dynamics. Anthropologists have long explored the varieties of emotional experience across cultures, from the analysis of different patterns of emotional behaviour in the early twentieth century to the linguistic comparison of different emotional expressions through the 1970s and 80s. Since around the 1990s, however, anthropologists began to shift their focus to the diverse ways that emotions also involve less linguistically determined but nevertheless socially conditioned bodily experiences they called ‘affect’. This entry documents early psychological and philosophical genealogies of affect; the relation of affect to anthropological studies of emotion; critiques of and counterpoints to the affect concept; and enduring themes in ethnographic studies of affect.

Embodied Cognition and Alcohol Use Disorder: Frequency of Impairments and Relationship to Neurocognitive Assessments

Background: Embodied cognition is an emerging concept in cognitive science that emphasizes the integral role of perception, action, and bodily experience in shaping human thought and understanding. Recently, a new instrument has been developed called the Automated Test of Embodied Cognition (ATEC), which provides a comprehensive measure of eight domains of embodied cognition. Method: An embodied cognition in an alcohol use disorder (AUD) sample (N = 49) was assessed using ATEC, which employs cognitively demanding physical tasks, like an exercise video, to measure executive functions (EFs), memory, and other cognitive processes “in action”. Results: Embodied delayed recall was the most frequent impairment (84%), and EF impairments were also common. Among the EF domains, self-regulation was the most frequently impaired at 43%. Using the ATEC total score, 43% of the sample were rated as having a mild or greater level of overall impairment. Strong support for concurrent validity was found for ATEC EF and memory domains when correlated with neurocognitive assessments conceptually related to them. Significant categorical agreement (impaired/not impaired) was also found between neurocognitive testing and ATEC total score. Using the ATEC total score, younger age, higher education, and better premorbid IQ were found to be potential protective factors against cognitive decline. Conclusions: Findings support ATEC’s potential for future studies related to AUD and other disorders that may lead to cognitive decline. Embodied cognition may provide new insights into how AUD affects cognition and functioning and be useful to determine what interventions may improve recovery.

Older men in motion: bodies, masculinities, and redefinition of identity.

This study explores the intersection of physical exercise, masculinity, and aging in older men, examining how these elements shape identity and bodily experiences. Aging is often framed through deficit-based narratives that emphasize decline; however, this research seeks to reframe aging as a process of adaptation and opportunity. By investigating how physical activity contributes to identity reconstruction, this study aims to provide insights into the broader social and structural factors influencing older men's engagement in exercise. The study employs a qualitative research design, utilizing semi-structured interviews with 12 men aged 65-76. A narrative thematic analysis was conducted to examine participants' experiences, concerns, and expectations regarding physical activity. This approach allowed for an in-depth exploration of how exercise intersects with notions of masculinity and aging, as well as the barriers and facilitators that shape participation in physical activities. The analysis identified three key themes: (1) the transformative role of exercise in fostering emotional well-being and bodily awareness, (2) the renegotiation of traditional masculinity through engagement in non-traditional physical activities, and (3) the social connections cultivated through group-based exercise programs. Additionally, the study highlights social and structural barriers, such as limited access to facilities and economic constraints, which hinder participation in physical activity. Findings underscore the significance of physical activity not only for maintaining health but also as a space for identity reconstruction and resistance to conventional narratives of aging. The study suggests that exercise serves as a means of empowerment, allowing older men to navigate aging in ways that challenge societal expectations. Moreover, the identification of structural barriers emphasizes the need for inclusive public health policies and targeted interventions that promote active aging. By reframing aging as a dynamic process of adaptation rather than mere decline, this research contributes to a broader understanding of how older adults experience and engage with physical activity.

Negative Body Experience in a Clinical Sample of Mental Disorders: Associations With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Mood Disorders, and Personality Disorders.

While body experience is a key focus of treatment in psychomotor therapy (PMT), research has largely overlooked this important topic. In this study we explored three domains of body experience-body satisfaction, body attitude, and interoceptive awareness-in individuals with mental disorders in a clinical sample receiving PMT. We expected these patients to have a more negative body experience than nonclinical controls, with PTSD, mood disorders, personality disorders, and sex negatively affecting all three domains of body experience. The study involved 235 participants aged 18-59 with various mental disorders that were referred to PMT between 2008 and 2017 at a mental health center in the Netherlands. They completed questionnaires on all three of the body experience domains of interest. One sample t-tests revealed that patients had significantly greater negative body satisfaction and body attitude than nonclinical control samples obtained from the literature, with no significant difference in interoceptive awareness. Regression analyses within the patient sample revealed that female patients and patients with mood disorders or PTSD, displayed more negative body satisfaction than patients with other mental disorders. Additionally, female patients and patients with mood disorders displayed more negative body attitude. Although the total patient group and controls had comparable interoceptive awareness, only PTSD had significantly lower interoceptive awareness. Age and personality disorders did not predict differences on any domain of body experience. This research demonstrates that body experience is disturbed in patients with mental disorders who received PMT, and that there are disorder-specific disturbances on domains of body experience domains.

National Memory, Primitive Emotion and Gender Metaphor: Tracing the Origins of Barnett Newman's Creative Ideology

Barnett Newman returned to the origins of art history and the history of artistic creation. Through expressing the experiences and emotions of the Jewish people, he elucidated the close relationship between his work and post-Holocaust memory, exploring the national narratives and cultural implications inherent in abstract forms. Primitive artistic forms and the experiences of early humans with the external world played a significant role in Newman's creative philosophy, conveying a transcendent perception resonant with primal emotions. Additionally, Newman's works reflect the complexities of gender identity and the conflicting struggles of self-perception and bodily experience. His art holds unique significance and value in challenging conventional perceptions, initiating pluralistic dialogues, and exploring gender metaphors. Centered on Newman's creations and discourse, this study elucidates the sources of his creative philosophy, captures the artist's creative intent, and offers a glimpse into the process by which modern individuals, amid tragic circumstances, seek and construct self-awareness and modern identity.

Multisensory experiences with and of food: representing taste visually and verbally during food ateliers in a Reggio Emilia perspective

ABSTRACT This paper offers an example of what a sensuous approach to food and taste education can look like by investigating the role of learners’ senses when taste experiences are translated into words and drawings. The context of the Reggio Emilia approach – and specifically the food atelier setting – creates a space to explore food and taste based on the pedagogy of listening and reflective taste pedagogy, where each participant’s individual taste experience is central. The authors describe a non-formal, online food atelier gathering data from 92 participants (78 children/adolescents and 14 adults) from 15 countries, focusing on learners’ articulated taste experiences of freely chosen foods through their descriptions and depictions of their taste experience. The findings offer insight into learners’ multimodal articulations of their experiences of tasting foods, starting from each individual’s visual/verbal interpretation, thus building bridges between (abstract) concepts and language on the one side, and sensuous bodily experiences on the other.

Dance Floors of Polish Traditional Dances

The question of how dances bear meanings is one of the key issues in the anthropology of dance. The author here describes how sensory participation in a dance party with traditional music allows the dancers to understand and negotiate the complex ideas behind the dances. She proposes the dance floor as an analytical category – an emergent modality of space that encompasses dancers and their materialising interactions. The research is based on the theoretical framework of embodiment. The material was gathered through participant observation during dance parties with traditional music. The data presented in this article was collected through observation, with a focus on the chosen senses. The study suggests that the personal engagement of a researcher in the field makes it possible to extrapolate the subjective information of bodily experience within a net of relations that come into being on dance floors. By focusing on the senses and materiality to explore the animated reality of dance, the author is able to provide a phenomenological description of how dance floors communicate information.

Does the Embodied Cognition Paradigm Have Implications for Learning?

Cartesian dualism, distinguishing mind from body, has significantly shaped our understanding of cognitive functions, often leading to the perception that these processes exist independently of our physical and bodily experiences. This rigid division has also influenced our approach to educational practices, which tend to be based on a theoretical understanding of cognition. However, emerging theories of embodied cognition are challenging this view by highlighting the fundamental connection between cognitive processes and bodily experiences as well as our physical interactions with the environment. These theories are increasingly supported by neuroscientific research, which recognizes the body as a crucial component of the learning process. Indeed, numerous studies indicate that incorporating bodily experiences into educational settings not only enhances learning, but also makes it more meaningful. When students participate in activities that involve movement and direct engagement with their surroundings, their ability to process and retain information improves, enabling them to translate abstract concepts into tangible forms and internalize them more effectively. This article aims to support a shift in our understanding of cognition away from the rigid dualistic paradigm toward a more holistic perspective of the educational process.

A critical analysis of Vishad Guna; Exploring its properties and uses in Ayurveda

All substances in the universe originate and develop with the inherent qualities of Satva, Raja, and Tama. This creation holds a significant position for its qualities. In material science, the characteristics of matter are influenced by its properties. These attributes differ from those of Sattvaadi. Understanding properties is crucial alongside understanding substances because all the qualities (Gurvadi Guna) attributed to substances are present in our bodies. When the body experiences decay for any reason, it can be restored to a balanced state by utilizing substances that possess similar properties. Conversely, when there is an excess of a certain property, substances with opposite properties are employed. Hence, qualities are also referred to as physical or medical qualities. Without an understanding of these properties, it is impossible to restore the body's metals to a state of equilibrium. Thus, understanding the properties existing in matter becomes imperative after exploring the matter. When a substance is combined or altered, it carries out diverse functions. Matter serves as a medium (Kaaran Dravya) for carrying out various actions.

THE EFFECT OF SLEEPING IN THE DARK ON SLEEP QUALITY IN FK UNISBA STUDENTS

Sleep is a state where the body experiences active unconsciousness, at this time the brain is in a relative rest phase but will remain reactive to internal stimuli. Sleeping in the dark can increase melatonin which affects sleep quality and results in fitness later. This study aims to see the effect of sleeping in the dark on sleep quality and fitness in 4th year medical students Bandung Islamic University. This study is experimental by comparing sleep quality and fitness when sleeping in light and dark conditions. The study was conducted on 42 students of Faculty of Medicine, Unisba. The students previously slept in light conditions and their sleep quality and fitness were measured after being asked to sleep in the dark with a special eye mask for 2 weeks. Sleep quality was assessed using the PSQI questionnaire that were translated in Indonesian language. The results of the study found that there was a significant difference in sleep quality (p<0.01). Sleeping in the dark can lead to good sleep quality might be because melatonin production is optimized, helping us fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.