Bodily Sensations Research Articles

An Exploration of the Association Between Sensory Processing and Interoceptive Awareness in Neurotypical School-Aged Children

ABSTRACT The relationship between children’s interoceptive awareness and sensory processing has to date received little attention in the empirical literature. This study investigated the association between sensory processing and interoceptive awareness factors in neurotypical school-aged children aged 8–12 years. A sample of 33 typically developing child/parent participant pairs residing in Australia were recruited. Sensory processing data was collected using the parent-reported Sensory Processing Measure-2, while interoceptive awareness data was gathered using the child-reported Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness-Youth, Interoceptive Awareness Questionnaire, and Three-domain Interoceptive Sensations Questionnaire. Spearman rho correlations and regression analysis with bootstrapping were used to investigate the relationship between sensory processing and interoceptive awareness factors. Five significant associations were found between interoceptive awareness and sensory processing factors: (1) Attention Regulation with Vision and Touch; (2) Self-Regulation with Vision, Taste & Smell, and Social Participation; (3) Body Listening with Touch, Taste & Smell, and Social Participation; (4) Awareness of Neutral Bodily Sensations with Vision; and (5) Interoceptive Sensibility with Taste & Smell. Significant positive predictive relationships were found between sensory processing and interoceptive awareness variables. Findings suggest an association between aspects of children’s sensory processing and their interoceptive awareness exists, providing occupational therapists with preliminary insights on this topic.

Conceptualising participant observations in festival tourism

ABSTRACT There is still confusion on what participant observation connotes and scholars call for more studies on researchers’ roles and emotional reflexivity in tourism. This interdisciplinary research aims to unpack participant observations at festivals. Findings from literary festivals in Ireland and Italy suggest that participant observations are Holistic Research Experiences and are characterised by four elements. First, they go beyond the visual and the multisensory nature, to be holistic experiences. Second, fieldwork is emplaced since researchers are situated in the field and can feel bodily sensations and empathy, but are not fully immersed. Third, the researchers’ participation continuum does not go from complete observer to complete participant, but it goes from passive to active involvement in the festival activities. Fourth, different passive/active, intentional/unintentional encounters can take place: human, animal, space, material, and immaterial. Finally, the paper considers future areas for research.

Feelings of detachment during rescue incidents: Qualitative analysis of depersonalisation and derealisation in paramedics

Depersonalisation and derealisation (DepDer) are alterations in consciousness occurring in both healthy people and those with mental problems, including trauma-related disorders. Depersonalisation relates to emotional detachment or numbing and distorted bodily sensations. Derealisation is associated with experiencing the environment as unreal or strange. This qualitative study explores these phenomena occurring during rescue operations by paramedics. Eight women participated in-depth interviews which were transcribed and subjected to interpretative phenomenological analysis, leading to identifying seven salient themes: 1) Getting excited and alert before rescue operations, 2) Running on autopilot under stress, 3) Filtering out stimuli to avoid distraction, 4) Agitation affects the perception of time, 5) Abreactions when detachment fades, 6) Selective memory about the course of events, and 7) Dealing with loss. Results show that DepDer were functional during emergency actions. Further research is necessary into normal and pathological forms of DepDer, and examining them in terms of state and trait.

Basic Emotion Measurement: Advances in Basic Emotion Theory

Emotions are both subjective feelings and objective physiological responses. Traditional psychology uses questionnaires to conduct research, which has great limitations. This article review some developments of the basic emotion measurement within a new theory about body maps. With a unique topographical self-report method, people could better understand the relationship between body sensations maps and different emotions. This article reviews several studies and compares them with other relevant emotion measurement studies to identify further possibilities and future research directions. Moreover, this paper will cut in from the method and process results of the experiment, and strive to obtain more accurate data for future. This new approach may provide new way of thinking. Meanwhile, the application of emotional bodily maps to various fields, such as artificial intelligence and experimental reference.

The Role of Perfectionistic Self-Presentation and Problematic Instagram Use in the Relationship Between Self-Concept Clarity and Body Disconnection: A Serial Mediation Model.

By combining authors who hypothesized that modern technology has greatly increased people's ability and people's possibility to distance themselves from their embodied awareness and those who have shown that communication through social media is more congenial to people with a tendency towards perfectionistic self-presentation (PSP), this study analyses the influence of self-concept clarity (SCC) in bodily dissociation (BD) and hypothesizes that people with a low SCC are more prone to BD and that PSP and problematic Instagram use (PIU) may play a serial mediating role in this relationship. Two hundred and 19 women (Mage = 31.8 ± 11.25) completed an online survey that included the Italian-validated versions of the Perfectionistic Self-Presentation Scale, the Scale of Body Connection and the Bergen Facebook Scale modified for Instagram use. A Serial Mediation Model (Hayes's PROCESS Model 6) shows that both PSP and PIU significantly serially mediate the association between SCC and BD (β = -.025 SE = .011, 95% CI = [-.0498, -.0070]) and that there is a mediating effect of PIU between SCC and BD (β = -.04 SE = .020, 95% CI = [-.0865, -.0098]), but no mediating effect of PSP between SCC and BD was found (β = -.052 SE = .031, 95% CI = [-.1184, +.0039]). A possible explanation is that people with low SCC try to avoid others noticing their imperfections because they fail to integrate it into their self-concept and tend to use Instagram in a problematic way because this tool allows them to largely control the information they share. This use, in turn, alters their state of mind-body connection and this increases the disconnection from one's bodily sensations. The absence of mediation by the PSP between SCC and BD and the presence of PIU mediation between SCC and BD underlines the importance of technology in this relationship. The implications and limitations of this study will be discussed.

Measuring Symptom-Specific Panic-Relevant Associations Using Single-Target Implicit Association Tests

BackgroundAccording to major cognitive accounts of panic disorder, bodily sensations can lead to automatic activation of an associative fear network, potentially triggering a cascade of cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses culminating in a panic attack. However, the evidence for the automatic associations assumed by these models is mixed. This may reflect the heterogeneous nature of panic disorder, in that the relative importance of different bodily sensations and symptoms varies between individuals. The current study aimed to test this possibility via measuring the associations between three different sets of panic symptoms (cognitive, respiratory, cardiac) and scores on three symptom-specific single target implicit association tests (STIATs).MethodsA total of 226 unselected female participants aged 18–35 completed the STIATs as well as questionnaires assessing panic symptoms and related measures in a web-based study.ResultsOnly limited evidence was found to support the idea of specific associations between STIAT stimuli sets and their related panic symptoms. Exploratory analyses indicated that there were only associations between STIAT scores and panic-relevant questionnaires amongst those participants who had experienced a panic attack in the previous 6 months.ConclusionsThe results have implications for measuring panic-relevant associations and understanding their role in panic disorder.

Self-reported interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive attention differentially correspond to measures of visual attention and self-regard.

Interoception, the perception of bodily functions and sensations, is a crucial contributor to cognition, emotion, and well-being. However, the relationship between these three processes is not well understood. Further, it is increasingly clear that dimensions of interoception differentially corresponds to these processes, yet this is only recently being explored. The present study addresses two important questions: Are subjective interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive attention related to self-regard and well-being? And are they related to exteroceptive (visual) attention? Participants (N=98; 29% women; aged 23-64 years) completed: a battery of questionnaires to assess subjective accuracy (how well one predicts bodily sensations), interoceptive attention (a tendency to notice bodily signals), self-regard (self-esteem, self-image, life satisfaction), state negative affect (depression, anxiety, and stress), a self-esteem Implicit Association Task (a measure of implicit self-esteem), and a flanker task to assess visual selective attention. Subjective interoceptive accuracy and attention served as dependent variables. Correlations and principal component analysis was used to establish correlations among variables and determine how, or whether, these measures are associated with subjective interoceptive accuracy or attention. Greater scores on measures of self-regard, implicit self-esteem, cognition and lower negative affect were broadly associated with greater subjective interoceptive accuracy. Conversely, only explicit self-esteem, satisfaction with life, and self-image corresponded to subjective interoceptive attention. An exploratory analysis with a more inclusive scale of interoceptive attention was conducted. Results of this exploratory analysis showed that the broader measure was a stronger correlate to self-regard than subjective interoceptive accuracy, though it, too, did not correlate with visual attention. In short, both subjective interoceptive accuracy and attention corresponded to well-being and mental health, but only accuracy was associated with exteroceptive attention. These results add to a growing literature suggesting different dimensions of (subjective) interoception differentially correspond to indices of well-being. The links between exteroceptive and interoceptive attention, and their association with merit further study.

Cough Sensitivity to Several External Triggers is Associated with Multiple Non-respiratory Symptoms

PurposeEnhanced responsiveness to external triggers is thought to reflect hypersensitivity of the cough reflex. It may involve an enhanced sensitivity of the afferent nerves in the airways and/or an abnormal processing of the afferent information by the central nervous system (CNS). The CNS processing of cough has been shown to involve the same regions as those in symptom amplification, a phenomenon that often manifests as multiple symptoms. The main purpose of the present study was to define whether the presence of several cough triggers is associated with multiple symptoms.Methods2131 subjects with current cough responding to two email surveys filled in a comprehensive questionnaire about social background, lifestyle, general health, doctors’ diagnoses and visits, symptoms, and medication. Multiple symptoms was defined as three or more non-respiratory, non-mental symptoms.ResultsA carefully controlled multiple regression analysis revealed that the number of cough triggers was the only cough characteristic associating with multiple non-respiratory, non-mental symptoms [aOR 1.15 (1.12–1.19) per one trigger, p < 0.001]. Among the 268 subjects with current cough both in the first survey and in the follow-up survey 12 months later, the repeatability of the trigger sum was good with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.80 (0.75–0.84).ConclusionThe association between the number of the cough triggers and multiple symptoms suggests that the CNS component of cough hypersensitivity may be a manifestation of non-specific alteration in the CNS interpretation of various body sensations. The number of cough triggers is a repeatable measure of cough sensitivity.

A feeling difficult to identify: Alexithymia is inversely associated with positive body image in adults from the United Kingdom

BackgroundResearch has increasingly examined the ways in which internal bodily experiences influence body image, including the relationship between alexithymia – the reduced ability to identify and describe one's own emotional feelings and bodily sensations – and negative body image. However, relationships between facets of alexithymia and positive body image remain unexplored. MethodsTo bridge this gap in the literature, we assessed relationships between facets of alexithymia and multiple, core indices of positive body image in an online sample of adults from the United Kingdom. A total of 395 participants (226 women, 169 men) aged 18 to 84 years completed measures of alexithymia, body appreciation, functionality appreciation, body image flexibility, body acceptance by others, and positive rational acceptance. ResultsOnce the effects of age had been accounted for, alexithymia was significantly and negatively associated with all five body image constructs in hierarchical multiple regressions. In the final models, the alexithymia facet of Difficulties Identifying Feeling emerged as a significant and negative predictor of all indices of positive body image. LimitationsThe use of cross-sectional data limits the causal conclusions that can be drawn. ConclusionsThese findings extend previous work by demonstrating the unique relationship between alexithymia and positive body image, providing important implications for body image research and practice.

Adolescents with developmental traumas in therapy in a child and adolescent mental health service, outpatient unit: experiences of daily living and expectations for therapy - a qualitative study.

Developmental trauma has a profound effect on people's lives. There are few studies of the perceived difficulties and treatment needs of adolescents with developmental trauma. More studies are called for to explore the perspectives and experiences of these patients, especially adolescents. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight adolescents with developmental trauma aged 14-18 years in a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Outpatient Unit. The interviews were analyzed using systematic text condensation. A main finding in this study regards the participants' understanding of why they needed therapy: symptom alleviation and coping tools. They expressed a need for talking with a safe and reliable adult who understood their situation. Their stories of daily functioning and bodily sensations align mainly with symptoms described for adolescents with developmental trauma. The study also shows that the participants' experiences of trauma affected their lives to a greater or lesser extent, in the form of ambivalence, avoidance, regulation, and coping strategies. They also described various physical problems, especially insomnia and inner restlessness. Their subjective stories revealed insights into their experiences. Based on the results, we recommend that adolescents with developmental trauma be allowed to express their understandings of their difficulties and their treatment expectations at an early stage of their therapy. An emphasis on patient involvement and the therapeutic relationship can increase their autonomy and control over their own lives and treatment.

The mechanism of mindfulness meditation on pain by functional magnetic resonance imaging method

Pain is a subjective feeling having sensory, cognitive and emotional components. Brain regions that cognitively and affectively contribute to pain sensation are the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula, prefontal cortex (PFC) and the default mode network (DMN). Depression and anxiety may accompany pain and they may exaggerate the pain via cognitive and affective disturbance. As a complementary treatment of pain, mindfulness meditation which is a therapeutic technique may be described as “non-judgmental awareness of the present moment”. Mindfulness meditation aims to focus on the experiences of bodily sensations and breathing in a non-judgmental and accepting manner. The functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is one of the tools that can explain the mechanism of action of mindfulness meditation on pain intensity, pain unpleasantness and the cognitive and affective disorders which accompanying pain. This study compiles studies examining the mechanism of action of mindfulness meditation on pain and pain accompanying pain unpleasantness, depression, anxiety with fMRI.

Combining the Inner Self with the Map of the Body: Evidence for White Matter Contribution to the Relation Between Interoceptive Sensibility and Nonaction-oriented Body Representation

Very recent studies on healthy individuals suggest that changes in the sensibility toward internal bodily sensations across the lifespan affect the ability to mentally represent one’s body, in terms of action-oriented and nonaction-oriented body representation (BR). Little is known about the neural correlates of this relation. Here we fill this gap using the neuropsychological model provided by focal brain damage. Sixty-five patients with unilateral stroke (20 with left and 45 with right brain damage, LBD and RBD, respectively) participated in this study. Both action-oriented BR and nonaction-oriented BR were tested; interoceptive sensibility was assessed as well. First, we tested whether interoceptive sensibility predicted action-oriented BR and nonaction-oriented BR, in RBD and LBD separately. Then, a track-wise hodological lesion-deficit analysis was performed in a subsample of twenty-four patients to test the brain network supporting this relation. We found that interoceptive sensibility predicted the performances in the task tapping nonaction-oriented BR. The higher interoceptive sensibility was, the worse patients performed. This relation was associated with the disconnection probability of the corticospinal tract, the fronto-insular tract, and the pons. We expand over the previous findings on healthy individuals, supporting the idea that high levels of interoceptive sensibility negatively affect BR. Specific frontal projections and frontal u-shaped tracts may play a pivotal role in such an effect, likely affecting the development of a first-order representation of the self within the brainstem autoregulatory centers and posterior insula and of a second-order representation of the self within the anterior insula and higher-order prefrontal areas.

The Value of Unity

The Value of Unity

Effectiveness of a Brief Online Mindfulness-Based Intervention for University Students

ObjectivesThe COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a dramatic increase in Web-based education, lacking face-to-face student–teacher and student–student interaction, and consequently impairing students’ sense of belonging to a community, interoceptive awareness, and academic self-efficacy. This study examined how a brief mindfulness-based intervention in an online university course can be effective in enhancing attention resources, developing a stronger sense of academic self-efficacy, and improving the sense of belonging to a community, which represent critical factors affecting students’ participation in online and blended courses.MethodFour-hundred and eighty-six participants (Mage 22.88) completed a battery of measures at pre- and post-treatment. One class (experimental group) participated in a brief online mindfulness-based intervention (42%), whereas the other one (control group) did not take part in the intervention (58%). The intervention included breathing meditation at the beginning of class, sharing of experiences, mini-lectures on mindfulness, and daily practice, and lasted for 28 consecutive days.ResultsParticipants in the experimental group when compared to controls showed a significant increase in the feeling of influencing the course activities (F = 9.628; p < 0.005), in the self-regulation of attention (F = 19.133; p < 0.001), in academic self-efficacy (F = 9.220; p < 0.005), and, particularly, in their self-efficacy in regulating learning (F = 12.942; p < 0.001). The students’ adherence to the assigned practice could partially explain the effectiveness of the intervention.ConclusionsThis study offers useful clues about the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions in the classroom in enhancing sense of belonging to a community, attention grounded in bodily sensations, and academic self-efficacy.PreregistrationThis study is not preregistered.

Pregnant women’s attitudes to and experiences with a smartphone-based self-test for prediction of pre-eclampsia: a qualitative descriptive study

ObjectivesTo explore attitudes to and experiences using a smartphone-based self-test for prediction of pre-eclampsia among pregnant women.DesignA qualitative, descriptive study.SettingAn obstetrical care unit at a university hospital in Denmark.ParticipantsTwenty women...

Multidimensional schizotypy and embodied emotions.

Disembodiment and socio-emotional deficits are core features of the schizophrenia spectrum from the prodromal stages to chronic illness. A recent study documented anomalous emotional embodiment in individuals with schizophrenia. Although bodily self disturbances have been shown to precede and predict psychosis onset in at-risk populations, the etiology of anomalous emotional embodiment remains largely unexplored. The present study investigated bodily maps of emotions in relation to schizotypy to extend our understanding of embodied emotions in the schizophrenia spectrum. A total of 419 participants (312 female; 19.50 ± 1.22 years) completed a topographical body mapping task where they reported patterns of embodiment experienced in the context of eleven different emotions and a neutral state (EmBODY). Embodied emotions were investigated in relation to multidimensional schizotypy. Individuals with elevated negative schizotypy experienced embodied emotions with higher intensity (r = 0.16, p = 0.003) but lower clarity (i.e., endorsing activation and deactivation in the same bodily location; β = -0.28, 95% CI [-0.54, -0.03], Z = 2.25, p=0.02) and endorsed more incongruent bodily sensations of emotions (i.e., reporting bodily activation in the context of a low-arousal emotion, r = 0.12, p = 0.05; reporting bodily deactivation in the context of high-arousal emotions, r = 0.13, p = 0.02). In line with the anomalous emotional embodiment documented in individuals with schizophrenia, some of these differences were particularly notable for low-arousal emotions. These results reveal negative schizotypy as a significant correlate of differences in emotional embodiment. More work is needed to link these differences to the anomalous bodily sensations of emotions documented in schizophrenia and assess their functional impact.

Close your eyes and open your mind: how closed eyes affect evaluations of utilitarian and hedonic advertising appeals

PurposeDrawing on embodied cognition and construal level theory perspectives in marketing literature, the purpose of this study is to propose that closed eyes make events appear distant and increase high-level construal and abstract processing, whereas opened eyes make events appear near and increase low-level construal and concrete processing. The authors further argue that high (low) construal level induced by closed (open) eyes increases favoritism toward utilitarian (hedonic) appeals.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on embodied cognition and construal level theory, the authors conduct three studies to investigate how consumers form varying distance perceptions and attitudes toward advertising appeals depending on whether they open or close their eyes while contemplating the messages. In Study 1, the authors tested the effects of an advertisement featuring utilitarian versus hedonic appeals in a food waste reduction campaign. In Study 2, the authors tested the effects of an advertisement stressing utilitarian versus hedonic aspects of a brand of travel products. In Study 3, the authors tested the effects of an advertisement for hotel reward products depending on consumption motivations.FindingsThe studies support the hypothesis by showing that when individuals close their eyes, they form abstract processing styles (high-level construal), perceive events as more distant and increase preferences for utilitarian advertising appeals; when they open their eyes, they form concrete processing styles (low-level construal), perceive events as nearer and indicate preferences for hedonic advertising appeals.Originality/valueThe novel insight of this study shows how bodily sensations may affect various types of hedonic and utilitarian advertising appeals. This study contributes to the embodied cognition and construal level literature, but the contribution of this study is particularly important for marketers and advertisers in that the authors show interactions between open or closed eyes, hedonic or utilitarian product aspects and processing styles.

Touch and Bodily Transparency

Abstract As most philosophers recognize, the body’s central role in touch differs from the role it plays in the other sense modalities. Any account of touch must then explain the pivotal nature of the body’s involvement in touch. Unlike most accounts of touch, this paper argues that the body’s centrality in touch is not phenomenological or experiential: the body is not felt in any special way in tactile experiences. Building on Aristotle’s account in De Anima, I argue that the body is central in touch because it is the medium of tactile perception. Touch depends on the body as vision and audition depend on air or any medium that can transmit light or sound waves. I show that it is precisely because the body must be transparent in order to transmit tangible properties that it cannot be perceived or experienced in tactile perception. Although this account conflicts with the widespread view that tactile perception is mediated by bodily sensations, I maintain that it explains how the structure and constitution of the human body contribute directly to what we feel in tactile experiences and that it provides a better understanding of the relation between the sense of touch and our bodily feelings.

Does A Savoring Meditation Reduce Unpleasant Bodily Sensations Or Increase Pleasant Bodily Sensations In Individuals With Rheumatoid Arthritis Relative To A Sham Meditation?

Does A Savoring Meditation Reduce Unpleasant Bodily Sensations Or Increase Pleasant Bodily Sensations In Individuals With Rheumatoid Arthritis Relative To A Sham Meditation?

Interoception, Voice Symptom Reporting, and Voice Disorders

Interoception may play a role in how individuals perceive their voice disorder. The first objective of this study was to investigate relationships between interoception and voice disorder class (functional, structural, neurological). The second objective was to determine relationships between interoception and voice-related outcome measures between patients with functional voice and upper airway disorders and typical voice users. The third objective was to determine whether patients with primary muscle tension dysphonia (a type of functional voice disorder) had different levels of interoceptive awareness than typical voice users. Prospective cohort study. One hundred subjects with voice disorders completed the multidimensional assessment of interoceptive awareness-2 (MAIA-2). Voice diagnosis and singing experience were also acquired from each patient's medical chart. Voice handicap (VHI-10) and Part 1 of the vocal fatigue index (VFI-Part1) scores were obtained from patients diagnosed with functional voice and upper airway disorders. MAIA-2, VHI-10, VFI-Part1, and singing experience were also obtained from 25 typical voice users. Multivariable linear regression models were used to assess the association between response variables and voice disorder class, adjusting for singing experience, gender, and age. There were no significant group differences between voice disorder class (functional, structural, neurological) after adjusting for multiple comparisons. Participants with functional voice and upper airway disorders who scored significantly higher on the VHI-10 and VFI-Part1 had lower Attention Regulation sub-scores on the MAIA-2 (P's<0.05). Patients with primary muscle tension dysphonia scored significantly lower on the Emotional Awareness MAIA-2 subscale than typical voice users (P=0.005). Patients with functional voice disorders with lower capabilities to attend to body sensations may score higher on voice-related patient-reported outcome measures, like the VHI-10 and VFI-Part1. Patients with primary muscle tension dysphonia may also have lower capabilities in processing their body sensations than typical voice users.