Balancing the Mind

2012 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
pp. 332-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline J. Falconer ◽  
Fred W. Mast
Keyword(s):  
Reference Frames ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Vestibular Stimulation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Mental Transformation ◽  
Body Reference ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Mental Transformations

The body schema is a key component in accomplishing egocentric mental transformations, which rely on bodily reference frames. These reference frames are based on a plurality of different cognitive and sensory cues among which the vestibular system plays a prominent role. We investigated whether a bottom-up influence of vestibular stimulation modulates the ability to perform egocentric mental transformations. Participants were significantly faster to make correct spatial judgments during vestibular stimulation as compared to sham stimulation. Interestingly, no such effects were found for mental transformation of hand stimuli or during mental transformations of letters, thus showing a selective influence of vestibular stimulation on the rotation of whole-body reference frames. Furthermore, we found an interaction with the angle of rotation and vestibular stimulation demonstrating an increase in facilitation during mental body rotations in a direction congruent with rightward vestibular afferents. We propose that facilitation reflects a convergence in shared brain areas that process bottom-up vestibular signals and top-down imagined whole-body rotations, including the precuneus and tempero-parietal junction. Ultimately, our results show that vestibular information can influence higher-order cognitive processes, such as the body schema and mental imagery.

scholarly journals Making the choice between bioelectrical impedance measures for body hydration status assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitry M. Davydov ◽  
Andrey Boev ◽  
Stas Gorbunov
Keyword(s):  
Body Schema ◽  
Bioelectrical Impedance ◽  
Information Criterion ◽  
The Body ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Hydration Status ◽  
Status Assessment ◽  
Best Fitting ◽  
Body Compartments ◽  
Fitting In

AbstractSituational or persistent body fluid deficit (i.e., de- or hypo-hydration) is considered a significant health risk factor. Bioimpedance analysis (BIA) has been suggested as an alternative to less reliable subjective and biochemical indicators of hydration status. The present study aimed to compare various BIA models in the prediction of direct measures of body compartments associated with hydration/osmolality. Fish (n = 20) was selected as a biological model for physicochemically measuring proximate body compartments associated with hydration such as water, dissolved proteins, and non-osseous minerals as the references or criterion points. Whole-body and segmental/local impedance measures were used to investigate a pool of BIA models, which were compared by Akaike Information Criterion in their ability to accurately predict the body components. Statistical models showed that ‘volumetric-based’ BIA measures obtained in parallel, such as distance2/Rp, could be the best approach in predicting percent of body moisture, proteins, and minerals in the whole-body schema. However, serially-obtained BIA measures, such as the ratio of the reactance to resistance and the resistance adjusted for distance between electrodes, were the best fitting in predicting the compartments in the segmental schema. Validity of these results should be confirmed on humans before implementation in practice.

scholarly journals Revisiting the Body-Schema Concept in the Context of Whole-Body Postural-Focal Dynamics

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pietro Morasso ◽  
Maura Casadio ◽  
Vishwanathan Mohan ◽  
Francesco Rea ◽  
Jacopo Zenzeri
Keyword(s):  
Body Schema ◽  
The Body ◽  
Whole Body

scholarly journals 004.From molecules to mind: stress, allostasis and integration of brain and body

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
B. McEwen
Keyword(s):  
Life Style ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
The Body ◽  
Stressful Events ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Wear And Tear ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Physiological Systems

The mind involves the whole body and two-way communication between the brain and the cardiovascular, immune and other systems via neural and endocrine mechanisms. Stress is a condition of the mind and a factor in the expression of disease that differs among individuals. A broader view is that it is not just the dramatic stressful events that exact their toll but rather the many events of daily life that elevates activities of physiological systems so as to cause some measure of wear and tear. We call this wear and tear 'allostatic load', and it reflects not only the impact of life experiences but also genetic load' individual life-style habits reflecting items such as diet, exercise and substance abuse' and developmental experiences that set life-long patterns of behavior and physiological reactivity (1). Hormones associated with stress and allostatic load protect the body in the short-run and promote adaptation, but the long run allostatic load causes changes in the body that lead to disease. This will be illustrated for the immune system and brain regions involved in stress, fear and cognition (e.g. hippocampus, amygdala and prefrontal cortex). Besides developmental influences associated with mother–infant interactions, the most potent of stressors in adult life are those arising from competitive interactions between animals of the same species, leading to the formation of dominance hierarchies. Psychosocial stress of this type not only impairs cognitive function of lower ranking animals, but it can also promote disease (e.g. atherosclerosis) among those vying for the dominant position, as well as depressive illness. Social ordering in human society is also associated with gradients of disease, with an increasing frequency or mortality and morbidity as one descends the scale of socioeconomic status (SES) that reflects both income and education. Although the causes of these gradients of health are very complex, they are likely to reflect, with increasing frequency at the lower end of the scale, the cumulative burden of coping with limited resources and negative life events as well as differences in life style, and the allostatic load that this burden places on the physiological systems involved in adaptation and coping. (1) McEwen, B.S. (1998) Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators. New England J. Med. 238, 171–179.

scholarly journals Decisions in motion: passive body acceleration modulates hand choice

2017 ◽  
Vol 117 (6) ◽  
pp. 2250-2261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romy S. Bakker ◽  
Roel H. A. Weijer ◽  
Robert J. van Beers ◽  
Luc P. J. Selen ◽  
W. Pieter Medendorp
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Body Motion ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Fundamental Aspect ◽  
Dominant Hand ◽  
Target Onset ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Right Hand ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Instantaneous Acceleration

In everyday life, we frequently have to decide which hand to use for a certain action. It has been suggested that for this decision the brain calculates expected costs based on action values, such as expected biomechanical costs, expected success rate, handedness, and skillfulness. Although these conclusions were based on experiments in stationary subjects, we often act while the body is in motion. We investigated how hand choice is affected by passive body motion, which directly affects the biomechanical costs of the arm movement due to its inertia. With the use of a linear motion platform, 12 right-handed subjects were sinusoidally translated (0.625 and 0.5 Hz). At 8 possible motion phases, they had to reach, using either their left or right hand, to a target presented at 1 of 11 possible locations. We predicted hand choice by calculating the expected biomechanical costs under different assumptions about the future acceleration involved in these computations, being the forthcoming acceleration during the reach, the instantaneous acceleration at target onset, or zero acceleration as if the body were stationary. Although hand choice was generally biased to use of the dominant hand, it also modulated sinusoidally with the motion, with the amplitude of the bias depending on the motion’s peak acceleration. The phase of hand choice modulation was consistent with the cost model that took the instantaneous acceleration signal at target onset. This suggests that the brain relies on the bottom-up acceleration signals, and not on predictions about future accelerations, when deciding on hand choice during passive whole body motion. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Decisions of hand choice are a fundamental aspect of human behavior. Whereas these decisions are typically studied in stationary subjects, this study examines hand choice while subjects are in motion. We show that accelerations of the body, which differentially modulate the biomechanical costs of left and right hand movements, are also taken into account when deciding which hand to use for a reach, possibly based on bottom-up processing of the otolith signal.

scholarly journals Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators: central role of the brain

2006 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-381 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Chronic Stress ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
The Body ◽  
Stressful Events ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Acute And Chronic Stress ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain

The mind involves the whole body and two-way communication between the brain and the cardiovascular, immune, and other systems via neural and endocrine mechanisms. Stress is a condition of the mind-body interaction, and a factor in the expression of disease that differs among individuals. It is notjust the dramatic stressful events that exact their toll, but rather the many events of daily life that elevate and sustain activities of physiological systems and cause sleep deprivation, overeating, and other health-damaging behaviors, producing the feeling of being "stressed out." Over time, this results in wear and tear on the body which is called "allostatic load," and it reflects not only the impact of life experiences but also of genetic load, individual lifestyle habits reflecting items such as diet, exercise, and substance abuse, and developmental experiences that set life-long patterns of behavior and physiological reactivity. Hormones associated with stress and allostatic load protect the body in the short run and promote adaptation by the process known as allostasis, but in the long run allostatic load causes changes in the body that can lead to disease. The brain is the key organ of stress, allostasis, and allostatic load, because it determines what is threatening and therefore stressful, and also determines the physiological and behavioral responses. Brain regions such as the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex respond to acute and chronic stress by undergoing structural remodeling, which alters behavioral and physiological responses. Translational studies in humans with structural and functional imaging reveal smaller hippocampal volume in stress-related conditions, such as mild cognitive impairment in aging and prolonged major depressive illness, as well as in individuals with low self-esteem. Alterations in amygdala and prefrontal cortex are also reported. Besides pharmaceuticals, approaches to alleviate chronic stress and reduce allostatic load and the incidence of diseases of modern life include lifestyle change, and policies of government and business that would improve the ability of individuals to reduce their own chronic stress burden.

scholarly journals Attitude Determination Algorithms through Accelerometers, GNSS Sensors, and Gravity Vector Estimator

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raúl de Celis ◽  
Luis Cadarso
Keyword(s):  
Reference Frame ◽  
Velocity Vector ◽  
Reference Frames ◽  
Attitude Determination ◽  
The Body ◽  
Gravity Vector ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Spacecraft Navigation ◽  
Body Reference ◽  
Ballistic Projectiles

Aircraft and spacecraft navigation precision is dependent on the measurement system for position and attitude determination. Rotation of an aircraft can be determined measuring two vectors in two different reference systems. Velocity vector can be determined in the inertial reference frame from a GNSS-based sensor and by integrating the acceleration measurements in the body reference frame. Estimating gravity vector in both reference frames, and combining with velocity vector, determines rotation of the body. A new approach for gravity vector estimations is presented and employed in an attitude determination algorithm. Nonlinear simulations demonstrate that using directly the positioning and velocity outputs of GNSS sensors and strap-down accelerometers, aircraft attitude determination is precise, especially in ballistic projectiles, to substitute precise attitude determination devices, usually expensive and forced to bear high solicitations as for instance G forces.

Vestibular stimulation modifies the body schema

2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (8) ◽  
pp. 1830-1837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Lopez ◽  
Helene-Marianne Schreyer ◽  
Nora Preuss ◽  
Fred W. Mast
Keyword(s):  
Body Schema ◽  
Vestibular Stimulation ◽  
The Body

scholarly journals Embodying the Mind and Reminding the Body

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-112
Author(s):  
Garry Cockburn
Keyword(s):  
Therapeutic Process ◽  
The Body ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Affective Neuroscience ◽  
Trauma Recovery ◽  
Whole Person ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Philosophical Understanding

The place and role of the body within psychodynamic psychotherapy has a long and complex history. Psychoanalysis has traditionally seen the body as being the location for negative psychosomatic enactments rather than as a dynamic part of the therapeutic process. This paper shows that the dialectical yet unitary relationship between mind and body has been recognised by some key psychoanalytic writers, such as Bion and Ogden. It describes how four trends in modern psychotherapy, e.g., the study of transference phenomena, trauma recovery, infant studies, and affective neuroscience are bringing the body back into focus for all practitioners. The paper then attempts to provide a conceptualisation of how the whole body can be brought back into psychotherapy through an understanding of what has been excluded and included. It highlights the importance of a dialogical approach among psychotherapies and provides a philosophical understanding of why the whole person, mind and body, needs to be “known” in the therapeutic relationship. Waitara He roa he whīwhiwhi te whakapapa o te wāhi me te mahi a te tinana i roto i ngā mahi hihiko whakaora hinengaro. Tūturu, ki tā te wewetehinengaro ko te tinana te wāhi whakaata hinengaro tōraro, ehara i te wāhi hihiko o te mahi haumanu. He whakaaturanga tā tēnei tuhinga ko te arohaehaenga he aha koa te pāngatahi o te ihomatua me te tinana kua kitea e mātau ana ētahi kaituhi kaiwhakaora hinengaro matua, pēnei i a Bion rāua ko Ogden. E whakaahua ana i ngā whainga e whā i roto i te whakaoranga hinengaro o tēnei wā, hei tauira: te whai mātauranga o te whakawhitinga puiaki, te whakaora mamae, te mātauranga kōhungahunga, te aropūtaiao e whakahoki mai ana i te tinana hei arotahi mā te katoa o ngā kaiwhakawaiwai. Kātahi ka whakatau te tuhinga ki te whakarato i tētahi ariāhanga ara whakahoki mai i te tinanan ki te whakaoranga hinengaro mā te mātatau ki ngā whakaputanga me ngā whakaurunga. Ka miramirahia te nui o te kōrerotahi ā ngā kaiwhakaorahinengaro, ā, ka whakaratohia he mātauranga mātāpono kia āta mōhiotia te katoa o te tangata, te hinengaro te tinana i roto i ngā pānga haumanu.

Body Image and Self-Concept in Schizophrenia

1960 ◽  
Vol 106 (442) ◽  
pp. 17-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. E. Weckowicz ◽  
R. Sommer
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Constant Change ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Body Ego

Disturbances of ego, self-concept and body-image have always been regarded as central in the psychopathology of schizophrenia. The passivity phenomena, automatisme superieur of the French authors, are indeed very common in this disease. There is a disturbance of the self which is shown in depersonalization and in feelings of influence and passivity. The boundaries of the self become loose or blurred and the patient may feel, for example, that parts of his body do not belong to him or that he is part of the plants, animals, clouds, other people or of the whole world and that they are part of him. He may feel at one with the whole of mankind. Self-concept is closely related to what has been termed “body image” or “perceived body”. Head (29, 30) has shown that what he called “body schema” is very important for motor co-ordination and performance of purposeful movements and also for orientation in space. Schilder (53) in his monograph has analysed the problem of body-image in great detail. He has found in the idea of the body image the basis for the body or physical ego. He follows Head in stating that the body image consists of the proprioceptions of the whole body and that it changes with the body's varying postures. Yet neither Head's body schema nor Schilder's body image are identical with the body ego. The body schema represents the constant mental knowledge of one's body; the body image is the changing presentation of the body in one's mind. Throughout the changes of the body image there is an awareness of continuity of one's body, a sense of basic identity and oneness. This constitutes the bodily or physical ego. The body ego in its turn is the basis of a wider “self” which can be called self-concept or selfhood. This self-concept or selfhood contains, in addition to the awareness of the continuity and the identity of one's own body in spite of its constant change, the awareness of the continuity of one's self as a person in spite of constantly changing relationship with the external world, and in spite of the playing and taking different “roles” in social interactions. According to Mead (38) and Coutu (16), selfhood is a social phenomenon and emerges only through interaction with other people, through “taking their roles” and viewing oneself from their point of view.

Burnout of the Mind – Burnout of the Body?

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Traunmüller ◽  
Kerstin Gaisbachgrabner ◽  
Helmut Karl Lackner ◽  
Andreas R. Schwerdtfeger
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
Maslach Burnout Inventory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Lower Percentage ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Urinary Catecholamines ◽  
Morning Cortisol ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Cortisol Increase

Abstract. In the present paper we investigate whether patients with a clinical diagnosis of burnout show physiological signs of burden across multiple physiological systems referred to as allostatic load (AL). Measures of the sympathetic-adrenergic-medullary (SAM) axis and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis were assessed. We examined patients who had been diagnosed with burnout by their physicians (n = 32) and were also identified as burnout patients based on their score in the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS) and compared them with a nonclinical control group (n = 19) with regard to indicators of allostatic load (i.e., ambulatory ECG, nocturnal urinary catecholamines, salivary morning cortisol secretion, blood pressure, and waist-to-hip ratio [WHR]). Contrary to expectations, a higher AL index suggesting elevated load in several of the parameters of the HPA and SAM axes was found in the control group but not in the burnout group. The control group showed higher norepinephrine values, higher blood pressure, higher WHR, higher sympathovagal balance, and lower percentage of cortisol increase within the first hour after awakening as compared to the patient group. Burnout was not associated with AL. Results seem to indicate a discrepancy between self-reported burnout symptoms and psychobiological load.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document