Bodily Experience Research Articles

Embodied schema information processing theory: an underlying mechanism of embodied cognition in communication

Abstract Embodiment has been incorporated in communication studies researching the experiencing self, motivated cognitive information processing, and embodied medium theory. This article highlights another factor—past bodily experiences—as important for understanding the impact of embodiment on communication processes. Expanding schema to a construct spanning multiple levels of the neural hierarchy, we propose embodied schema as a minimal framework to capture the idea that all mental structures are grounded in the body. Based on the function of embodied schemas, we describe an Embodied Schema Information Processing Theory (ESIPT) that includes an embodied dual-process theory, which offers a more coherent account of the automatic cue- or heuristic-based processing mode, and a model that describes the influence of the environment and bodily state on high-level cognitive processing. This article systematically explores the role of past bodily experiences and provides a general account of embodied information processing that can inform a wide range of communication studies.

Qualitative Classification of Late Systemic Symptoms in Head and Neck Cancer Survivors.

Improved rates of cancer control have increased the head and neck cancer survivor population. Cancer survivorship clinics are not widely available in the USA, and longitudinal supportive care for patients undergoing multimodal therapy has not advanced at a pace commensurate with improvements in cancer control. Consequently, a large head and neck cancer survivor population whose quality of life may be chronically and/or permanently diminished presently exists. This lack of awareness perpetuates under-recognition and under-investigation, leaving survivors' (mostly detrimental) experiences largely uncharted. We conducted a qualitative exploration of survivors' experiences, aiming to unpack the profound impact of late systemic symptoms on daily life, encompassing work, relationships, and self-identity in the head and neck cancer survivor community. The study included 15 remitted head and neck survivors, ≥12 months from their final treatment, who participated in semi-structured interviews conducted by a medical oncologist. Data analysis comprised qualitative thematic analysis, specifically inductive hierarchical linear modeling, enriched by a deductive approach of anecdotal clinical reporting. Results highlighted that 43.36% of all quotation material discussed in the interviews pertained to chronic emotion disturbance with significant implications for other domains of life. A central symptom cluster comprised impairments in mood/emotions, daily activity, and significant fatigue. Dysfunction in sleep, other medical conditions, and cognitive deficits comprised a secondary cluster. Physical dysfunctionality, encompassing pain, appetite, and eating, and alterations in experienced body temperature, constituted a tertiary cluster, and perhaps were surprisingly the least discussed symptom burden among head and neck cancer survivors. Symptoms causing heightened long-term survivor burden may be considered epiphenomenal to central physical dysfunctionality, albeit being presently the least represented in cancer survivor care programs. Moving forward, the development of targeted and multi-dimensional treatment programs that encompass physical, psychosocial, and spiritual domains are needed to increase clinical specificity and effective holistic long-term solutions that will foster a more compassionate and informed future of care for the cancer survivorship community.

Rust, Dust, Smoke and Smell: Memoryscapes for Industrial Heritage

ABSTRACT The sensory aspects of heritage can be elusive, with the fugitive nature of the dimension of smell, and with the ephemerality of tactile changes to surfaces, and the overall temporal mutability of the landscape. Memoryscape is a multi-sensory approach that promotes the act of remembering and bodily experience in a landscape. Industrial heritage possesses important cultural and historical values and worth remembering, yet heritage design practice has been focused on the visual and neglected the non-visual aspects of the landscape. This article explores how smell and materials can enhance a bodily experience at post-industrial landscapes through three cases in New Zealand: Shantytown Heritage Park, Dunedin Warehouse Precinct and The Tannery. The results illustrate how olfactory and ephemeral materials infuse heritage landscapes with vivid connections to the past, but are often overlooked in professional framings of heritage. Traditional perspectives on heritage, especially in formal settings like museums, eliminate elements such as smell and dust as they are seen as phenomena of decay. Professionals, such as landscape architects, are predominantly ocularcentric in their practice, and the potential of multi-sensory approaches can be overlooked. In the context of industrial heritage, these olfactory and ephemeral qualities are not necessarily pleasant, and this further contributes to their being neglected in the treatment of heritage sites.

Gross and Histopathological Study of Postscabietic Nodules

Background: Nodular postscabietic scabies refer to the persistent intermittent signs of scabies that are seen in active and post-treatment period that might last for months. The spectrum of clinico-morphological ranges that can be observed with sarcoptic nodules is broad, and most of the entity's criteria can be elicited histopathologically and pathologically. The management of such nodules may be a challenge. They are commonly treated through local application of corticosteroids or injection of corticosteroids to nodules but the response to treatment is less than clent and relapses are very frequent. The objective of this study was to illuminate which of these features prevail and which ones fade in scarred sites which undergo postscabietic nodule development. The time span between August 2021 to May 2022 was allowed to collect samples from patients with (1-60) years old and full of scabies burrows who visit teaching hospitals and private dermatology clinics in Kut, Wasit Province, Iraq. Treat groups were split into 30 females, and 20 males; with persistent itchy nodular lesions of scabies demonstrated clinically and histopathologically. Everity grade scabies was evaluated by the number of lesions and rated it as severity of itching. Long-term treatment with topical glucocorticoids for 14 days in every age. Tissue from the blisters of patient was obtained after medication. The specimens were washed, fixed and cut to 4-5 µm and stained with H&E. The staining allowed us to observe the fragments of tissues under light microscope with different magnification power. We have observed excessive males and the prevalence of SCABies were more in a young adult group in comparison with other age groups. It was found that lesions with wiry projections tended to persist for two weeks to 52 weeks and the number of nodules had varied from one to fourteen lesions. Examination of Histopathological slide showing acanthosis in 80, histolymphocytic infiltration in 76, and eosinophilia in 100 of total cases in the whole period. After the scabitic nodule loop, the body experiences a hypersensitivity reaction. From the three hundred cases examined microscopically, most (80%) of them were found to be characterized by acanthotic epidermis and diffuse dense dermal lymphocytic infiltration. Neutrophilic reaction, epithelioid-granulomatous inflammation and eosinophilia have been diagnosed in 76 % sight upon while 100 % of other nodules have shown eosinophilia.

The role of bodily experiences during pregnancy on mother and infant outcomes.

Pregnancy is a transformative time for women and their bodies, and therefore thoughts and feelings and about one's own body and internal bodily sensations may understandably change during this period. Body satisfaction and interoception have been found to influence factors such as antenatal attachment (AA) and maternal mental health. However, mixed results in the literature suggest complex relationships between the bodily experience during pregnancy and outcomes, necessitating a broader investigative approach. We aim to examine the relationship between the pregnancy bodily experience and multiple mother-infant outcomes. It is hypothesised that poor bodily experiences during pregnancy will have negative impacts on these outcomes. Cross-sectional online survey data was collected from individuals at various gestations throughout pregnancy as part of a larger longitudinal study (N = 253, mean age = 32). We analysed validated measures of pregnancy body satisfaction, interoceptive sensibility, AA and mood, as well as intentions to breastfeed. Linear regressions were used to confirm findings from previous literature and a network analysis allowed for a more exploratory approach to understanding the importance of the bodily experience during pregnancy. Multiple regressions found low body satisfaction predicts higher levels of anxiety, depression and AA. A network analysis revealed relationships between body satisfaction and interoception during pregnancy and mother-infant outcomes, including depression and AA. Our results highlight the far-reaching effects of poor bodily experiences during pregnancy on a variety of outcomes. Understanding the impact of the pregnant bodily experience can help identify at-risk individuals and inform interventions.

Bodily experiences of trauma and psychosis risk

Bodily self-disturbances including anomalous embodiment of emotions are observed in psychosis-spectrum conditions. Psychosis is also associated with trauma exposure but the relationship between altered bodily experiences and trauma has not been extensively investigated in individuals at risk for psychosis (HR). We implemented a mapping task to localize felt sensations associated with trauma. Results show that trauma experiences were always localized in the body. HR reported increased rates of traumatic experiences than low-risk group (LR). HR reported sensations associated with trauma across widespread body areas. Further research is needed to elucidate how trauma might lead to psychotic-like experiences via bodily self-disturbances.

The Sick Body Writing: Towards an Affective Genetic Criticism

The Sick Body Writing: Towards an Affective Genetic Criticism examines the idea that manuscripts can be affected by illness as much as their authors’ bodies are. This article aims to highlight a critical gap in the methodology of literary genetic criticism by introducing a new lens of affective genetic criticism. Genetic criticism looks at the archive of drafts and notes related to a literary work-in-progress. The application of affect theory brings focus to the impacts of the author’s bodily experience during writing while in different states of un/healthiness. The effects of authors’ health on their writing, especially textual non/production and the representations of un/healthiness, can be found in their archive in a variety of forms, whether represented in the narrative or responsible for elements of the narrative’s structure. Using two case studies from different literary canons, James Joyce (modernist) and Aidan Chambers (children’s and Young Adult), the article concludes that this lens can be productively applied to understand better the embodiment of writing processes and adaptations of writing environments as a result of affective needs.

First-order sense-making in L2 academic discussions: A distributed view of teacher languaging dynamics in embodied and situated learning context

The study explores teacher's situated and embodied interactions with students in second language (L2) academic discussions and how the teacher languaging dynamics facilitate students' learning when they are engaged in an academic discussion outside the classroom. The situated learning enables learning to take place in contexts other than classroom that affords the environment for embodied interaction and legitimizes the learning community with shared communicative purposes. The first-order teacher languaging dynamics are recontextualized in the situated learning contexts that encourage knowledge exchange as social learning engagements to enable students to bodily experience learning and develop the process of knowing. With a distributed view to language, a multi-scalar approach to multimodal interaction analysis is employed to investigate how the teacher dynamically interacts with students through embodied semiosis in the situated learning context and how academic knowledge is bodily enacted by the teacher languaging behaviours in the dynamic embodied environment. The findings show different embodied strategies are deployed by the teacher to bodily ground the academic knowledge in both vocal tract gesturing and hand movements where the meanings are generalized, visualized, objectified, concretized and symbolized in first-order languaging dynamics to facilitate and afford student sense-making and learning in academic discussions.

Developing Functional Thinking: from Concrete to Abstract Through an Embodied Design

AbstractIn addressing the challenge of fostering functional thinking (FT) in secondary school students, our research centered on the question of how an embodied design can enhance FT’s different aspects, including input–output, covariation, and correspondence views. Drawing from embodied cognition theory and focusing on an action- and perception-based task design that uses light ray contexts and different function representations, we developed a digital-embodied learning environment, using the nomogram as a central representation. Our pilot study involving four eighth-grade students provided insights into their physical interactions with these modules through a multi-touch digital interface. Analysis of video and audio recordings from the pilots, including students’ hand gestures and verbal expressions, was guided by comparing hypothetical learning activities with the actual learning activities. The results show that (1) a concrete light ray context enables students to ground the abstract mathematical function concept; (2) the bimanual coordinating motion tasks, incorporating the covariation aspect of FT, allow students to connect their bodily experience with function properties; and (3) our embodied and dragging tasks support insight in the conversion between nomograms and graphs of functions, encouraging students’ correspondence thinking by providing multiple perspectives to understand, reason about, and manipulate the function. In conclusion, our findings suggest the potential of digital-embodied tasks in fostering FT, evident in students’ diverse strategies and reasoning.

Queer temporalities and the life course: Trans aging in Torrey Peters' Detransition, Baby (2021)

Torrey Peters' debut novel Detransition, Baby from 2021, a Women's Prize for Fiction nominee, problematizes gender norms by telling the story of three main characters: Reese, a trans woman, Ames, who de-transitioned to live as a man again, and Katrina, a Chinese and Jewish cis woman who is also Ames' lover and boss. Ames and Katrina are expecting a child and are testing the possibilities of having a non-conventional family together with Reese. Parenthood is, thus, the central theme of the novel which structures also the sections of book into the time before the conception and the weeks after it. By doing so, the temporal framework of the novel queers the linearity of heteronormative life courses on the form as well as the content level. Therefore, the interplay of form and content invites to critically investigate how the concept of trans time that challenges linearity and normative conformity (Halberstam, 2005) may provide useful insights into trans aging and the life course through this literary representation. Following, contemporary feminist theorists' commitments to negotiate what makes “life more livable for those whose gender presentation, identity, or bodily experience have been judged abnormal, nonexistent, or impossible” (Karhu, 2022, 304–305), this paper aims at carrying out a critical feminist literary analysis of trans aging, queer life courses and the thereof related gendered norms in Peters' novel. By relying predominantly on feminist poststructuralist theories (Butler 2004) and cultural aging studies (Maierhofer, 2019), it is the aim to challenge normativity and limited social norms through this critical literary reading.

Comment on ‘Sexual relationships in group analysis: Theoretical investigations and clinical applications’ by Anastassios Koukis

With respect to the article by Koukis (2024) the author questions important points concerning self-exclusion, working through, external group events, boundary incidents and bodily experience. He concludes that it is necessary to restore boundaries and facilitate the therapeutic space.

Can boxing relieve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and improve quality of life? A qualitative study of the experiences of participants attending the Danish Parkinson boxing concept

Purpose To explore how people with Parkinson’s (PwP) experience the impact of attending Parkinson Boxing (PB) on their symptoms and quality of life. Methods The authors NMAY and PeB conducted participant observations of four PB sessions and eight semi-structured interviews with PwP who participated in PB in Denmark. The empirical material was systematically analyzed using thematic analysis. Results Four main themes arose. The participants experience a sense of community from being part of a group where they share the same diagnosis. They described various bodily experiences related to their physical and cognitive functioning and well-being, as well as emotional experiences including feelings of joy, gratitude, and mental well-being. They are motivated to participate in the training sessions, and participation further motivates them to retain their exercise practice. Conclusions The experienced impact of participating in PB relates to physical relief of symptoms and improved functioning in everyday life, as well as a mental lift, energy, and joy during and after training sessions. Participants described being motivated to attend PB and to continue their training practice. Thus, PB entails experiences of relief of symptoms and presumably improved quality of life for the participants.

Volumetric, embodied and geologic geopolitics of the seabed: offshore tin mining in Indonesia

ABSTRACT This paper introduces empirical research on tin divers’ bodily experience of seabed mining concerning offshore Bangka and Belitung Islands, Indonesia, critical seabed mining sites. To govern the seabed off these Islands, ‘classic’ geopolitical approaches such as marine spatial planning (MSP) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) hierarchically construct the seabed through two-dimensional mapping and policy, occluding specific tin diving practices on the seabed. Moving from such flat geopolitical understandings of the ocean floor, this paper offers new engagements with feminist geopolitics, volumetric territory and social ocean studies to think about the seabed through its volume, the bodies that are immersed within and animate it, and its geologic materiality. It does so by examining intimate tin diving relations between human bodies, volumetric space and ore bodies in relation to the contemporary geopolitical making of the seabed territory. Whilst many scholars have engaged with this volumetric-embodied-geologic approach, this paper argues that the nexus of volumetric space, bodies (embodied experiences) and geologic materiality in tin diving are a crucial tactical point for diverse mining governance actors, sustaining dangerous labour, mining accidents and death in tin diving.

Compassionately fat: An autotheoretical exploration of queer bodies

ABSTRACT The concept that queer scholars hold a shared responsibility for all queer people forms the driving inspiration for this exploration at the juncture of queerness and fatness. We advocate that cultivating compassion can be a way for queer fat people to engage in new relations with their embodiment that reflect the tenets of fat social justice. Drawing from fat activists of color and fat studies scholars, our relationships with our bodies are political. Within queer men’s communities, hegemonic constructs of queer men’s bodies privilege muscular bodies that are lean with very little fat. In this article, we advocate for compassion as an approach to queer fat activism. Compassion is a social construction and social beliefs, values, and knowledge shape not only how compassion is practiced and enacted but also who is able to receive compassion. We cannot ignore how cis-heteronormativity and fatphobia influences the way compassion is understood and practiced. In this dual autotheoretical work, we will explore the meanings of compassion within the context of fat activism as queer men. Our approach combines practices of self-narration with critical theory, and thus unites the authors’ bodily experiences through creative means with philosophy. We relate, through storytelling, our experiences of queerness and (non)compassion with fat studies scholarship for the purpose of advocacy and social transformation.

'There is still a part of me that would love to be the old me again', how do adolescents and young adults (AYA) experience cancer-related bodily changes: a phenomenological interview study.

Due to the increase in both cancer incidence and overall survival rates, more adolescents and young adults (AYAs) have to live with the effects that their cancer diagnosis and following treatments have on their bodies. This qualitative phenomenological study aimed to gain more insight into the way AYAs experience these effects and how they respond to these effects. Semi-structured interviews with a sample of 11 AYAs with an age range of 25-41years at the time of the interview, who were diagnosed with different types of cancer, were conducted. Participants were recruited via social media and patient associations until data saturation was reached. A topic guide with open-ended questions about lived experiences was used. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was performed to analyse the transcripts. We identified six Group Experiential Themes based on different ways AYAs experience their bodies: (1) self-conscious body, (2) vulnerable body, (3) adapting to the body, (4) uncontrollable body, (5) remembering the body and (6) shared bodies. This study offers in-depth insight into the bodily experiences of AYAs after cancer and how they respond to these changes from a phenomenological point of view. This knowledge could be beneficial to provide more guidance for AYAs during and after their illness, by focussing on personalised psychological (after)care.

Spaces of Colonial Oppressions: Palestinians’ Bodily Experiences of Checkpoints

This article explores how bodily living and experiencing life as colonized subjects affects the perception of space and time. It argues that the Zionist settler-colonial trinity of control (checkpoints, ID cards, and permits) are not mere physical barriers of separation or restriction of movement and mobility. They are also a direct mechanism of colonial power that articulates how oppressive spaces are lived and consequently form the colonized perception of being-in-the-world. Based on two years of ethnographic study at Qalandia checkpoint between 2015 and 2017, the article adopts a phenomenological anthropological lens and focuses on two moments of bodily experiences related to passing the checkpoint: First, the bodily experience before reaching the checkpoint; and second, the bodily experience when crossing the checkpoint.

Questions of scale sensitivity, experience and branding culture in and beyond Hans Christian Andersen's House

With a new museum, Hans Christian Andersen's House, the Danish city of Odense has intensified the relationship between the nineteenth-century author, a son of the city, and the architectural spaces of today. The museum opened in 2021 but has drawn much attention since 2016 when Kengo Kuma and Associates were announced as winners of the competition to design this new house of fairy tales. The combination of Andersen, a cherished author whose works are read worldwide, and Kuma, an esteemed world-famous architect, seemed a perfect match to secure attention from a wider public and attract local and international visitors. The museum's architecture and urban garden form a focal point in the exhibition design but are also central elements in a larger transformation project in Odense. Entangled in all this is Andersen: his fairy tales, his personality, and the places he lived in Odense. The article explores how experiential visions and branding culture are balanced, and argues that the museum was created with a sensitivity towards different scales that form the relations with the museum's contexts. How such scale sensitivity is connected to the materiality, spaces, and bodily experiences of the museum is analysed through theories by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Celia Lury.

Emotional meanings attributed to sexual experiences reported by Brazilian Men with Head and Neck Cancer seen at a Public University Oncologic Outpatient Service: A Qualitative Study

Introduction“What can and what cannot I do in a sexual relationship?” |In this way, a middle-aged man with HNC - Head and Neck Cancer, under chemotherapy or radiotherapy, asks. This doubt is raised to the oncologist, radiotherapist, nurse or psychotherapist. Apparently, his concern is objective, considering he has a severe diagnosis and important treatments. However, underlying the manifest doubt, there are symbolic constructions in his mind that generate anguish. The health professionals’ response must go beyond information. They also must understand the symbolic emotional meanings associated with the patient’s speech. This attitude will bring a psychotherapeutic effect to the ill man.ObjectivesTo interpret symbolically sexual and emotional experiences reported by male patients diagnosed with HNC under outpatient treatment in a public specialized clinical unit.MethodsWe used the CQM - Clinical-Qualitative Method (Turato. Portuguese Psychos. J, 2000 2(1): 93-108). For data collection, the main researcher used the Semi-Directed Interview with Open-ended Questions In-Depth and Field Notes. The employ of the Seven Steps of the CQCA - Clinical-Qualitative Content Analysis (Faria-Schützer et al. Cien Saude Colet. 2021; 26(1): 265-274) brings us to discussion categories. The sample was closed with 12 patients according to the information saturation strategy (Fontanella et al. Cad Saude Publica. 2008; 24(1): 17-27). The interviews were conducted by the first author of this abstract, a male nurse, as part of his master’s research at a postgraduate course in Oncology. The findings were validated by peer reviewers from the Lab of Clinical-Qualitative Research at the State University of Campinas.ResultsTwo categories were chosen for this presentation: ‘The dyad perceived in the felt body and the experienced body’, and ‘The body re-signified between the sexual and affective dimensions’. The body symbolized before and after the illness experiences a movement in phenomenological consciousness that leads to external changes in its attitudes. The patient needs now to ask himself and others what this body can - or cannot - do. The severely ill body imposes new meanings for life and sexuality. It does not cancel the wish but asks for a new channelling of your psychic/sexual energies.ConclusionsThese findings indicate that patients with HNC want to talk about sexuality and ask about the risks of sexual activity, contrary to what the common view supposes. Traditional Balint groups met with the multidisciplinary team can be beneficial for doctors and nurses to deal with their own emotional limitations. Furthermore, the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, under the approach of psychosomatic medicine, focuses on the care of patients with behavioural and emotional manifestations, together with the work of the oncologists.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Toward a deeper appreciation of correlative thinking: A comparative analysis of Zhuangzi's Fish Parable and Merleau‐Ponty's philosophy of body

AbstractThis paper argues that correlative thinking, a fundamental aspect of Chinese thought often distinguished from rational thinking, is rooted in our situated bodily experiences, constituting a unique mode of sensemaking. It performs a comparative analysis between Zhuangzi's Fish Parable and Merleau‐Ponty's philosophy of embodied perception, focusing on the self‐attunement in our embodied experience and Dao, which remains invisible but gradually reveals its presence as the parable unfolds. The paper illuminates the embodied nature of correlative thinking by exposing the intricate interplay between the self and others, as well as the self and its lived environment. This analysis underscores the reciprocal relationship between Dao and correlative thinking: Dao acts as the origin of correlative thinking, while correlative thinking, in turn, unveils the presence of Dao. This analysis could enrich our understanding of the interplay between the self, others, and the world they inhabit.

Gendered capital in psychotherapy: A thematic analysis of patients' experiences of the therapists' gender

Gendered capital in psychotherapy: A thematic analysis of patients' experiences of the therapists' gender