Emotional representations of space vary as a function of peoples’ mental health and interoceptive awareness
As people interact in extensive environments, their space becomes intertwined with emotions. Yet, beyond the study of spatial appraisal and navigation1–3, the emotional representation of space remains elusive. Here we developed a method that, even without mobility (during Covid-19 lockdown), allows examining participants’ emotional representation of space and psychophysiological correlates. We gave participants blank maps of the region where they lived and asked them to apply shade where they had happy/sad memories, and where they wanted to go after the lockdown. They also completed self-reports on mental health and interoceptive awareness (appraisal of inner bodily sensations). By adapting neuroimaging methods, we examined shaded pixels instead of brain voxels to quantify where and how strong emotions are represented in space. The results revealed that happy memories were consistently associated with similar spatial locations. Yet, this mapping response varied as a function of participants’ mental health and interoceptive awareness. Interestingly, maps of happy memories and desired locations after lockdown overlay significantly with natural environments (vs. non-natural). These results suggest that our relationship with the environment relates to how we feel and appraise bodily sensations (i.e., allostasis in space). Our method may provide a spatially ecological marker for physical and mental disorders.