scholarly journals Just a heartbeat away from one's body: interoceptive sensitivity predicts malleability of body-representations

2011 ◽  
Vol 278 (1717) ◽  
pp. 2470-2476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manos Tsakiris ◽  
Ana Tajadura- Jiménez ◽  
Marcello Costantini
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Stimulation ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Body Awareness ◽  
The Body ◽  
Interoceptive Awareness ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Body Representations ◽  
Monitoring Task ◽  
Interoceptive Sensitivity ◽  
First Time

Body-awareness relies on the representation of both interoceptive and exteroceptive percepts coming from one's body. However, the exact relationship and possible interaction of interoceptive and exteroceptive systems for body-awareness remain unknown. We sought to understand for the first time, to our knowledge, the interaction between interoceptive and exteroceptive awareness of the body. First, we measured interoceptive awareness with an established heartbeat monitoring task. We, then, used a multi-sensory-induced manipulation of body-ownership (e.g. Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI)) and we quantified the extent to which participants experienced ownership over a foreign body-part using behavioural, physiological and introspective measures. The results suggest that interoceptive sensitivity predicts the malleability of body representations, that is, people with low interoceptive sensitivity experienced a stronger illusion of ownership in the RHI. Importantly, this effect was not simply owing to a poor proprioceptive representation or differences in autonomic states of one's body prior to the multi-sensory stimulation, suggesting that interoceptive awareness modulates the online integration of multi-sensory body-percepts.

scholarly journals Experiential ownership and body ownership are different phenomena

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caleb Liang ◽  
Wen-Hsiang Lin ◽  
Tai-Yuan Chang ◽  
Chi-Hong Chen ◽  
Chen-Wei Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Distinct Type ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Rubber Hand ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time ◽  
Full Body

AbstractBody ownership concerns what it is like to feel a body part or a full body as mine, and has become a prominent area of study. We propose that there is a closely related type of bodily self-consciousness largely neglected by researchers—experiential ownership. It refers to the sense that I am the one who is having a conscious experience. Are body ownership and experiential ownership actually the same phenomenon or are they genuinely different? In our experiments, the participant watched a rubber hand or someone else’s body from the first-person perspective and was touched either synchronously or asynchronously. The main findings: (1) The sense of body ownership was hindered in the asynchronous conditions of both the body-part and the full-body experiments. However, a strong sense of experiential ownership was observed in those conditions. (2) We found the opposite when the participants’ responses were measured after tactile stimulations had ceased for 5 s. In the synchronous conditions of another set of body-part and full-body experiments, only experiential ownership was blocked but not body ownership. These results demonstrate for the first time the double dissociation between body ownership and experiential ownership. Experiential ownership is indeed a distinct type of bodily self-consciousness.

scholarly journals The body self-awareness among women practicing fitness: a preliminary study

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Brytek-Matera ◽  
Anna Kozieł
Keyword(s):  
Body Awareness ◽  
The Body ◽  
Interoceptive Awareness ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Body Attitude ◽  
Attitude Test ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Body Self ◽  
Body Attitude Test ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The purposes of the present study were to explore the relationship between body awareness and negative body attitude, interoceptive body awareness and physical self in women practicing fitness as well as to analyze the determinants of body awareness. The Body Awareness Questionnaire, the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness, the Physical Self-Description Questionnaire and the Body Attitude Test were applied to 43 women practicing fitness and 32 non-fitness practitioners. Bodily self-awareness was connected with greater fitness practitioners’ interoceptive body awareness and greater physical self. Noticing and global esteem predicted body awareness in women practicing fitness.

Clinical Neuropsychologist, 20 years’ experience, UK

2020 ◽  
pp. 229-232
Author(s):  
Markus Reuber ◽  
Gregg H. Rawlings ◽  
Steven C. Schachter
Keyword(s):  
Epileptic Seizures ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Body Awareness ◽  
Physical Symptoms ◽  
The Body ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Epileptic Attack ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Experience Of Illness

This chapter explores how dissociation of awareness of either the mind or the body can be experienced by everyone to some degree. It has been suggested that in Non-Epileptic Attack Disorder (NEAD), a protective mechanism of enabling individuals to detach from the difficult emotions they have not yet been able to make sense of has led to a detachment from the awareness of the body, thus resulting in physical symptoms that resemble epileptic seizures. Treatment therefore lies in improving both mind and body awareness. Working with individuals with NEAD or Dissociative Seizures introduces one to the multifaceted nature of humanity. Although there are common themes that emerge through psychological assessment—such as prior experience of illness, neurological insult or physical injury to a specific body part, difficulty recognizing stress in the body or mind, or a tendency to use unhelpful coping strategies during prolonged periods of stress,—no two persons with NEAD have the same seizures because each individual’s experience is unique, making the nature and clinical presentation of the seizure-like experiences idiosyncratic. Despite this, it is always possible to discover the reason that individuals with NEAD experience the symptoms they do, even if it is sometimes initially hard for the individual to accept or believe this.

scholarly journals Differential changes in self-reported aspects of interoceptive awareness through 3 months of contemplative training

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Bornemann ◽  
Beate M. Herbert ◽  
Tania Singer
Keyword(s):  
Discriminant Validity ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Body Awareness ◽  
The Body ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Interoceptive Awareness ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Convergent And Discriminant Validity

Interoceptive body awareness (IA) is crucial for psychological well-being and plays an important role in many contemplative traditions. However, until recently, standardized self-report measures of IA were scarce, not comprehensive, and the effects of interoceptive training on such measures were largely unknown. The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) questionnaire measures IA with eight different scales. In the current study, we investigated whether and how these different aspects of IA are influenced by a 3-months contemplative intervention in the context of the ReSource project, in which 148 subjects engaged in daily practices of “Body Scan” and “Breath Meditation.” We developed a German version of the MAIA and tested it in a large and diverse sample (n = 1,076). Internal consistencies were similar to the English version (0.56– 0.89), retest reliability was high (r s: 0.66–0.79), and the MAIA showed good convergent and discriminant validity. Importantly, interoceptive training improved five out of eight aspects of IA, compared to a retest control group. Participants with low IA scores at baseline showed the biggest changes. Whereas practice duration only weakly predicted individual differences in change, self-reported liking of the practices and degree of integration into daily life predicted changes on most scales. Interestingly, the magnitude of observed changes varied across scales. The strongest changes were observed for the regulatory aspects of IA, that is, how the body is used for self-regulation in daily life. No significant changes were observed for the Noticing aspect (becoming aware of bodily changes), which is the aspect that is predominantly assessed in other IA measures. This differential pattern underscores the importance to assess IA multi-dimensionally, particularly when interested in enhancement of IA through contemplative practice or other mind–body interventions.

scholarly journals Interoceptive Functioning in Schizophrenia and Schizotypy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lénie Torregrossa ◽  
Amad Amedy ◽  
Jacqueline Roig ◽  
Andrea Prada ◽  
Sohee Park
Keyword(s):  
Help Seeking ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Internal State ◽  
The Body ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Interoceptive Awareness ◽  
Seeking Behavior ◽  
Spectrum Experiment ◽  
Interoceptive Accuracy ◽  
First Time

Though bodily self-disturbances are well documented in schizophrenia, interoceptive functioning (i.e., the perception of the internal state of the body) remains poorly understood in this population. In fact, only two studies to date have empirically measured interoceptive ability in schizophrenia. Both studies documented a deficit in interoceptive accuracy (i.e., objective performance on a heartbeat detection task), and one noted differences in interoceptive sensibility (i.e., subjective experience of interoception) in this population. To our knowledge, interoceptive awareness (i.e., metacognitive awareness of one’s interoceptive ability) has never been measured in schizophrenia and the link between interoceptive functioning and schizotypy remains unexplored. The present study addresses this gap by investigating the three dimensions of interoception in individuals with schizophrenia and matched controls (Experiment 1, N=58) and across the schizotypy spectrum (Experiment 2, N=109). Consistent with the literature, Experiment 1 documented a deficit in interoceptive accuracy and differences in interoceptive sensibility in individuals with schizophrenia. For the first time, our study revealed intact interoceptive awareness in individuals with schizophrenia. Against our expectations, we found no link between schizotypy and interoceptive functioning in Experiment 2. Our novel findings bear important clinical implications as insight into one’s interoceptive limitations (i.e., intact interoceptive awareness) might promote treatment seeking behavior in schizophrenia. The lack of association between interoceptive ability and schizotypy in non-help-seeking youths suggests that changes in interoception may only arise with the onset of psychosis.

scholarly journals The Body Across Adulthood: On the Relation Between Interoception and Body Representations

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Raimo ◽  
Maddalena Boccia ◽  
Antonella Di Vita ◽  
Maria Cropano ◽  
Cecilia Guariglia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Schema ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Older Age ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Structural Representation ◽  
Body Representations ◽  
Hand Laterality ◽  
Effects Of Aging

Interoceptive information plays a pivotal role in building body representations (BR), but the association between interoception and the different types of BR in healthy individuals has never been systematically investigated. Thus, this study aimed to explore the association between BR and interoceptive sensibility (IS) throughout adulthood. One hundred thirty-seven healthy participants (50 aged from 18 to 40 years old; 50 aged from 41 to 60 years old; and 37 over 60 years old) were given a self-report tool for assessing IS (the Self-Awareness Questionnaire; SAQ), and a specific battery including tasks evaluating three different BR (i.e., the body schema, using the Hand Laterality Task; the body structural representation, using the Frontal Body Evocation task, FBE; and body semantics, using the Object-Body Part Association Task) as well as control tasks (i.e., tasks with non-body stimuli). The older age group (aged over 60 years old) showed lower performances on the tasks probing the body schema and body structural representation than younger groups (aged 18 to 40 and 41 to 60 years old). More interestingly, worse performances on a task assessing the body schema were significantly associated with higher IS with older age, suggesting that higher awareness of one’s inner body sensations would decrease the plasticity of this BR. These findings are interpreted according to the neuropsychological model of BR development and the effects of aging on the brain.

Cross-referenced body and action for the unified self: empirical, developmental, and clinical perspectives

2021 ◽  
pp. 194-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Imaizumi ◽  
Tomohisa Asai ◽  
Michiko Miyazaki
Keyword(s):  
Body Representation ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Sense Of Agency ◽  
Phantom Limb ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Motor Rehabilitation ◽  
Self Recognition ◽  
The Brain

This chapter discusses how the self emerges in the brain through the body and bodily actions. In terms of minimal selfhood, self-representation has two aspects: sense of body ownership and sense of agency over action. In the rubber hand illusion paradigm, multisensory and sensorimotor signals induce illusory ownership over a fake hand. Studies in healthy adults suggest a cross-referenced relationship between body and action as a mechanism of the self-representation. Specifically, one’s own hand can spontaneously move towards the fake hand due to illusory ownership, suggesting a body-to-action relationship. In contrast, an object which is moving synchronously with one’s hand can entail a sense of body ownership as well as a sense of agency, suggesting an action-to-body relationship. The chapter also discusses developmental and clinical perspectives. Immature self-recognition and body part localization in children suggest a prerequisite of representations of the self and body. Although such representations can deteriorate due to damage to the body and brain, amputees can incorporate phantom limb and prosthesis into their body representation through visuo-motor rehabilitation, regaining senses of ownership and agency over these limbs once again. The chapter proposes generation-loss-regeneration dynamism in self-representation originating from the cross-referenced body and action.

scholarly journals Heartbeat-Evoked Cortical Potential during Sleep and Interoceptive Sensitivity: A Matter of Hypnotizability

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1089
Author(s):  
Lucia Billeci ◽  
Ugo Faraguna ◽  
Enrica L. Santarcangelo ◽  
Paola d’Ascanio ◽  
Maurizio Varanini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Heart Rate Variability ◽  
Healthy Volunteers ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Cortical Potential ◽  
Interoceptive Awareness ◽  
Time Domains ◽  
Interoceptive Sensitivity ◽  
First Time

Individuals with different hypnotizability display different interoceptive sensitivity/awareness (IS) and accuracy (IA), likely sustained by morphofunctional differences in interoception-related brain regions and, thus, possibly also observable during sleep. We investigated the heartbeat-evoked cortical potential amplitude (HEP) during sleep, its association with IS, and the role of hypnotizability in such association. We performed a retrospective analysis of polysomnographic recordings of 39 healthy volunteers. Participants completed the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA), measuring IS and IA, and underwent hypnotic assessment via the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, form A. The amplitude of the early and late HEP components was computed at EEG frontal and central sites. In both regions, the early HEP component was larger in N3 than in N2 and REM, with no difference between N2 and REM. Greater HEP amplitude at frontal than at central sites was found for the late HEP component. HEP amplitudes were not influenced by the autonomic state assessed by heart rate variability in the frequency and time domains. We report for the first time a positive correlation between the central late HEP component and MAIA dimensions, which became non-significant after removing the effects of hypnotizability. Our findings indicate that hypnotizability sustains the correlation between IS and HEP amplitude during sleep.

scholarly journals Feeling Oneself Requires Embodiment: Insights From the Relationship Between Own-Body Transformations, Schizotypal Personality Traits, and Spontaneous Bodily Sensations

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
George A. Michael ◽  
Deborah Guyot ◽  
Emilie Tarroux ◽  
Mylène Comte ◽  
Sara Salgues
Keyword(s):  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Body Awareness ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Representations ◽  
Schizotypal Personality ◽  
Mental Rotations ◽  
Bodily Sensations ◽  
Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Coherent Picture

Subtle bodily sensations such as itching or fluttering that occur in the absence of any external trigger (i.e., spontaneous sensations, or SPS) may serve to locate the spatial boundaries of the body. They may constitute the normal counterpart of extreme conditions in which body-related hallucinations and perceptual aberrations are experienced. Previous investigations have suggested that situations in which the body is spontaneously experienced as being deformed are related to the ability to perform own-body transformations, i.e., mental rotations of the body requiring disembodiment. We therefore decided to consider whether the perception of SPS might relate to embodiment as assessed through (i) the ability to perform own-body transformations (OBT task) and (ii) schizotypal traits (Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, or SPQ), since high degrees of schizotypy in the general population have been associated with more vivid perceptions and aberrant perceptual experiences. Then participants completed a standard SPS task. Our analysis revealed that the slower the response time in the OBT task, the more frequent the perception of SPS. This suggests that difficulties in disembodying and mentally transforming one’s own body facilitate feeling oneself. Furthermore, a greater number of correct responses in the OBT task was associated with less frequent perception of SPS. This suggests that finding it easier to disembody and perform mental own-body transformations interferes with the ability to sense oneself. The results also show that higher schizotypal traits, as assessed through the SPQ, are associated with more frequent perception of SPS. Taken together, these results provide a coherent picture and suggest that embodiment is required in order to correctly feel oneself, as expressed through the perception of SPS. The ability to easily experience disembodiment reduces the sense of feeling oneself, and proneness to schizotypal traits produces body misperceptions that enhance and amplify this feeling. The results are discussed in the light of current knowledge and theories about body representations, taking into account attention and interoception as factors that influence body awareness. We offer explanations for perceptual aberrations, body-related delusions, and hallucinations based on misperceived or misinterpreted SPS, and we discuss possible mechanisms that may contribute to feeling and misperceiving oneself.

Plasticity in multisensory body representations after amputation and prosthesis implantation

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 135
Author(s):  
Elisa Canzoneri ◽  
Elisa Magosso ◽  
Amedeo Amoresano ◽  
Andrea Serino
Keyword(s):  
Distance Perception ◽  
Sudden Change ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Physical Structure ◽  
The Body ◽  
Limb Amputation ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Somatosensory Processing ◽  
Prosthesis Implantation ◽  
Body Representations

Multisensory representations of the body and of the space around it (i.e., Peripersonal space, PPS) depend on the physical structure of the body, in that they are constructed from incoming multisensory signals from different body parts. After a sudden change in the physical structure of the body, such as limb amputation, little is known about how multimodal representations of the body and of the PPS adapt to loosing a part of the body, and how partially restoring the function of missing body part by means of prosthesis implantation affects these multimodal body representations. We assessed body representation in a group of upper limb amputees by means of a tactile distance perception task, measuring the implicitly perceived length of the arm, and PPS representation by means of an audio–tactile interaction task, assessing the extension of the multisensory space where environmental stimuli interact with somatosensory processing. When patients performed the task on the amputated limb, without the prosthesis, the perceived arm length shrank, with a concurrent shift of PPS boundaries towards the stump. Wearing the prosthesis increased the perceived length of the stump and extended the boundaries of the PPS so to include the prosthetic hand. The representations of the healthy limb were comparable to those of healthy controls. These results suggest that a modification in the physical body affects multisensory body and PPS representations for the amputated side; such representations are further shaped if prostheses are used to replace the lost body part.

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