Somatic Modalities Research Articles

Genevieve Stebbins and the philosophical roots of somatics

Today’s multiplicity of somatic modalities – therapeutic arts of bodily awareness – unite in their practitioners’ shared mission to provide a corrective for the mind–body severance lived out in western culture. Unfortunately, this severance often recapitulates itself in an anti-intellectual stance held by many champions of bodily wisdom. Yet, a look back at the origins of the somatics movement reveals a much more integral conception of the human being in the philosophical system of psycho-physical culture set forth by the performer, author, teacher and philosopher Genevieve Stebbins. A prominent influence in the world of physical culture at the dawn of the twentieth century, Stebbins’ work exemplifies the possibility of retrieving holistic conceptions of the human being from the history of western thought and creatively retranslating them in the light of modern consciousness Through such a view, the human body is revealed as visible spirit, instrument of living art.

Tactile and Somatic Hallucinations in a Muslim Population of Psychotic Patients.

Background: Tactile and somatic hallucinations are distressing phenomena that have hardly been researched. The few studies that have been published focus on their occurrence in neurodegenerative disorders and substance use, and, surprisingly, not on schizophrenia spectrum disorders.Objective: To fill this gap in our knowledge, we sought to explore the phenomenological characteristics of tactile and somatic hallucinations in a group of psychotic Muslim patients. Since many Muslims attribute such experiences to jinn (invisible spirits) and jinn are often perceived in multiple sensory modalities, we not only charted the involvement of the tactile and somatic modalities but also their interrelatedness with hallucinations in other sensory modalities.Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study using a semi-structured interview and dedicated questionnaire.Results: Of the 42 Muslim inpatients mostly diagnosed with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder, 62% reported to suffer from tactile and/or somatic hallucinations. Their phenomenological characteristics varied, with 96% being multimodal in nature and 38% taking the form of full-blown entity/jinn encounters. In comparison to other entity experiences, the involvement of the tactile and somatic modalities was exceptionally high, as was the level of ensuing distress. Regarding the order of recruitment of the various sensory modalities, we suggest the involvement of an underlying stochastic process.Conclusion: Muslim patients with severe psychosis can have tactile and somatic hallucinations, of which a large number are multimodal or full-blown entity/jinn encounters, which are almost invariably appreciated as harrowing. On the basis of our findings we make recommendations for further research and clinical practice.

Applications of somatic psychology: movement and body experience in the treatment of dissociative disorders

ABSTRACT Somatic psychology is a powerful tool to address clinical dissociative disorders. Somatic modalities offer interventions to manage intense effect, offer corrective experience and build a coherent self-narrative. Using physical movement helps facilitate safety, strength and connection in dissociative disorder treatment. Clinicians can facilitate somatic regulation of dissociated experience by using somatic-based interventions with clients, therefore helping patients to re-pattern traumatic experiences and maladaptive coping strategies. Using case study examples from this author’s in-office experience treating patients with dissociative disorders using movement, this paper will address how bringing movement interventions into the treatment room addresses integration of psychological and physical systems. It will also discuss the foundations of somatic psychology and outline how somatic processing is important to the integration of insight and reconnection with the client’s sense of self as a whole.

Prevention of movement disorders based on somatic abstractions of human movement: Principles, computation and reflection

Abstract In this article, we describe a framework for creating technology-based experiential systems rooted in somatic movement education for health and well-being applications. The proposed framework starts with principles derived from somatic modalities in general, and three of the major somatic theories in particular: The Alexander Technique™, The Feldenkrais Method™ and Body-Mind Centering®. In building such a system, we consider ways to translate concepts of expanded motor-sensory awareness, function and ease of movement into measurable attributes for action quality, with simple-to-use and easily available sensing/feedback technology. Inspired by the pioneering work of F. P. Jones, a student of F. M. Alexander, whose research looked ‘to scientifically demonstrate the physiological mechanisms underlying its principles’, our framework seeks to build upon this work by leveraging advances in current technologies for motion capture that enable home-based deployment (KINECT, cell phone accelerometers, etc.), as well as advances in pattern classification technologies for distinguishing actions based on attributes that correlate to subjective, kinaesthetic responses. The framework is intended to provide a foundation in the implementation of a real-time, media-based, interactive experiential system. As well, it is intended to engage communities of somatic practitioners, theorists and technologists in extending the scope of the research and development of new applications.

Developing Listening Bodies in the Dance Technique Class

JOPERD • Volume 78 No. 6 • August 2007 W hat does it mean to listen? The defi nition by Merriam Webster OnLine (n.d.), “to hear something with thoughtful attention,” can serve as a useful basis for this discussion. Body listening for dance is simply to attend closely to the processes, functions, needs, and intuitions of the body within the context of dance. Although the idea of body listening is not necessarily revolutionary or ground breaking, it is, nevertheless, a concept that has been under-emphasized in the dance technique class and should be revisited. The structure of a traditional dance class does not currently offer suffi cient opportunities for students to develop a sensitized relationship with their body. In the pursuit of technical training and virtuosity, manifested in “mechanical repetitions of movements,” many dancers have actually become “disembodied from their experience” (Fortin, 2002, p. 133) and may have diminished the delicate, open-looped channel of communication with their somatic voice. The purpose of this article is to provide a practical framework for infusing a more somatic or body-listening approach into the dance class. The article will briefl y defi ne somatics and describe and exemplify fi ve somatic components of body listening for the dance technique class. A somatic or body-listening approach—culled from a wide range of scientifi c, experiential, and creative domains—emphasizes a holistic conception of the body. Thomas Hanna (1993) fi rst coined the term somatics approximately 30 years ago, citing the Greek word soma, which denotes the dynamic, living body that exists in space and time. According to Hanna (1995), somatics refers to a study of the body “from the fi rst-person viewpoint of his own proprioceptive senses” (p. 341). In recent history, the somatic perspective has been increasingly used as a tool in the dance class. Martha Eddy (2002) poignantly stated, “When the dancing body is approached from a holistic perspective, which involves experiential inquiry inclusive of physical awareness, cognitive refl ection, and insights from feelings, the dancing is somatic” (p. 119). Eddy went on to clarify that some forms of dance education are overtly somatic, and others are implicitly somatic, in so far as they focus in varying degrees on the whole person, including emotional, psychological, and even spiritual components. It is important to acknowledge the difference between the specifi c somatic-based knowledge, tools, and skills of professional practitioners in “codifi ed” modalities— such as Alexander Technique, Body-Mind Centering, and the Feldenkrais method (which Hanna studied)—and the way that the term somatic is used in this article, as it might be applied by most dance teachers. The established somatic modalities are quite in-depth and require many hours of prerequisites and specialized study. However, the most basic common denominator of these practices is the importance of the fi rst-person, experiential approach, which emphasizes awareness of sensation, Developing Listening Bodies in the Dance Technique Class

Metastability, instability, and state transition in neocortex

Mesoscopic patterns of neural activity were sought in multichannel EEGs of rabbits that were trained to respond to conditioned stimuli (CSs) in visual, auditory and somatic modalities. Spatiotemporal patterns were sought of oscillations in the beta and gamma ranges. The techniques required for preprocessing EEGs in search of global patterns were diametrically opposed to those needed for localization of modular EEG signals. Frames were found in the form of intermittent spatial patterns of phase and amplitude modulation (AM and PM) of carrier waves in beta and gamma ranges that served to classify EEG frames with respect to CSs. A model based on the intentional action–perception cycle is proposed to complement the information processing model.

Consequences of covert orienting to non-informative stimuli of different modalities: A unitary mechanism?

Reaction time (RT) to visual targets is lengthened following non-informative cues presented in the same location, or in different locations but in the same hemifield as the targets. RT lengthening is best accounted for by the voluntary suppression of an overt orienting toward the location of the cue: this veto produces an inhibition of the overall motor reactivity towards stimuli presented in the entire hemifield of the cue. This paper shows that ipsilateral inhibition is not unique to the visual system, since the same directional constraints in motor readiness are induced with somatosensory stimulation. RT is slower when a somatic target delivered on a shoulder is preceded by an ipsilateral somatic cue compared to a contralateral one. The neural control of these orienting tendencies may involve the superior colliculus, which contains overlapping maps of the visual, somatosensory and auditory peripheries. This suggestion is reinforced by the presence of cross-modal inhibitory effects in paradigms involving visual cues and somatic targets or somatic cues and visual targets. While the time course of ipsilateral inhibition is similar in the visual and the somatic modalities, cross-modal inhibitory effects are different and somehow complementary when visual cues precede somatic targets (early, short-lasting inhibition) or, respectively, somatic cues precede visual targets (late, long-lasting inhibition). An additional finding is that crossed-uncrossed RT differences (CUDs), presumably due to the anatomical relations between stimulus and response, are present in both modalities.

Vestibular, auditory, and somatic input to the posterior thalamus of the cat.

The responses of 157 neural units in the magnocellular (mc) and parvocellular (pc) components of the medial geniculate nucleus (MG) and other nuclei of the posterior (PO) thalamic group were recorded and analyzed. Units were tested for a response to electrical stimulation of the vestibular nerve, natural auditory and electrical cochlear nerve stimulation, and natural stimulation of joint, muscle, and cutaneous receptors of the limbs, trunk, and neck (somatic stimulation). Only 45% of the units responded to these stimuli. Twenty-four percent of the responsive units were multimodal, responding to more than one stimulus. All multimodal units were activated by auditory stimuli. More units responding to vestibular stimulation were found in mcMG than in pcMG or other components of the PO group. Potentials evoked by vestibular nerve stimulation were recorded in all 3 regions with latencies of 5--25 msec. No evidence was found for a thalamic relay from vestibular nerve to cortex in the area investigated, since the recorded latency for activity from vestibular nerve stimulation was longer than the latency of responses recorded in the cortex. This region of the thalamus appears to be important for reception of auditory information and integration with vestibular and somatic modalities.

Effects of morphine on the single unit activity of nucleus dorsal raphe

Effects of morphine were studied in 36 gallamine triethiodide immobilized adult cats under light N2O anesthesia. Single units were recorded from the nucleus dorsal raphe using a stainless steel microelectrode. Dorsal raphe neurons were divided into two types; one was a clock-like (CL) neuron which was typically slow in rate, rhythmic and stable throughout recording time, and the other was a non-clock like (NCL) neuron which was relatively irregular in pattern as compared with CL neuron. Out of 36 neurons recorded in this experiment, 13 were CL neurons and 23 were NCL neurons. Mean discharge rates (spikes per sec) of CL neuron and NCL neuron were 2.84 (range of 2.01 approximately 3.68) and 4.11 (range of 0.10 approximately 35.09), respectively. None of the 13 CL neurons responded to the nociceptive (pinch and/or brdaykinin) and non-nociceptive (hair bending and/or tapping) stimuli. On the contrary, out of 23 NCL neurons, 13 responded to both nociceptive and non-nociceptive stimuli, 4 were responsive to only non-nociceptive stimuli and 6 were not responsive to these stimuli. Receptive fields of NCL neurons were wide with various somatic modalities. The latency for bradykinin (3 microgram) was 6.46 +/- 0.77 sec. Effects of morphine were examined in 6 CL neurons and 12 NCL neurons. After morphine, no nociceptive neuron responded to nociceptive stimuli, although there was no appreciable change in the responsiveness to non-nociceptive stimuli. Firing frequency and pattern of all CL neurons were unaffected by morphine. Out of 12 NCL neurons, 7 were unaffected in firing frequency and 5 were decreased after morphine.