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Introduction: Although stimulation-induced sensations are typically considered undesirable side effects in clinical DBS therapy, there are emerging scenarios, such as computer-brain interface applications, where these sensations may be intentionally created. The selection of stimulation parameters, whether to avoid or induce sensations, is a challenging task due to the vast parameter space involved. This study aims to streamline DBS parameter selection by employing a machine learning model to predict the occurrence and somatic location of paresthesias in response to thalamic DBS. Methods: We used a dataset comprising 3,359 paresthetic sensations collected from 18 thalamic DBS leads from 10 individuals in two clinical centers. For each stimulation, we modeled the Volume of Tissue Activation (VTA). We then used the stimulation parameters and the VTA information to train a machine learning model to predict the occurrence of sensations and their corresponding somatic areas. Results: Our results show fair to substantial agreement with ground truth in predicting the presence and somatic location of DBS-evoked paresthesias, with Kappa values ranging from 0.31 to 0.72. We observed comparable performance in predicting the presence of paresthesias for both seen and unseen cases (Kappa 0.72 vs. 0.60). However, Kappa agreement for predicting specific somatic locations was significantly lower for unseen cases (0.53 vs. 0.31). Conclusion: The results suggest that machine learning can potentially be used to optimize DBS parameter selection, leading to faster and more efficient postoperative management. Outcome predictions may be used to guide clinical DBS programming or tuning of DBS based computer-brain interfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bodily illusions have been used to investigate one's sense of self and body ownership. This study explored the effect of the height of the first-person perspective (1PP) on out-of-body experience (OBE) illusion in which participants see their backs through a head-mounted display, receive visuotactile stimulation, and gradually feel as if they are sitting behind themselves, experiencing a sensation similar to an OBE. We hypothesized that increasing or decreasing the height of the 1PP would induce the OBE illusion at all heights and that participants' perceived own heights would adjust according to the 1PP height. We also predicted that the size and distance of external objects would vary according to the perceived height of one's own body. The results revealed that the OBE illusion occurred at all 1PP heights and was stronger when the 1PP height was lower or higher than usual. Meanwhile, the participants' perceived own heights, the sizes and distances of external objects did not change. These results suggest that manipulating the 1PP may affect the magnitude of the OBE illusion, but not the perception of the dimensions of the self or external objects. The height of 1PP may be one of the important factors in the bodily illusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Awareness of one's own states is a particularly important part of cognition and emotion regulation. Recently, the concept of alexisomia has been used to refer to lack of awareness and expression of somatic sensations. Developing self-reported questionnaires to evaluate alexisomia represents a challenge for clinical psychology and medicine. In this context, we suggested to adapt the Body Awareness Questionnaire in French to measure alexisomia and its relation to alexithymia. In fact, we carried out a backtranslation and studied the validity of the construct in relation to proximal constructs around emotional awareness. Methods: For this study, 610 university students completed questionnaires measuring a three dimensions alexithymia concept [with The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20)] or the five dimensions alexithymia concept [with The Bermond-Vorts Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ-B)] and alexisomia (with the BAQ). Results: Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the BAQ can be envisaged through 4 factors as well as a unidimensional model to refer to alexisomia. We also found that body awareness was negatively related to scores of alexithymia. Conclusion: Results are discussed in light of the construct of alexisomia and its clinical implications in somatic as well as mental disorders. We suggest that the BAQ, which assesses interoception, can contribute, in part, to the assessment of alexisomia. Like alexithymia, this is a key concept to take into consideration when designing treatment and prevention programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Somatosensory Amplification Scale (SSAS) was designed to measure individual's tendency to experience visceral and somatic sensations as unusually intense, disturbing and alarming. In this study, we aimed to investigate the reliability and validity of the SSAS in the Chinese general population, as well as the mediating effect of somatosensory amplification in the relationship between alexithymia and somatization. A total of 386 healthy adults were enrolled in this study. Participants completed the Chinese versions of the Somatosensory Amplification Scale (SSAS-C), the somatization subscale of the Symptom Check List 90 (SCL-90 som), the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and the Short form Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI). One hundred and thirtythree participants were randomly selected to complete the SSAS-C again two weeks after the initial assessment. The reliability and validity of the SSAS-C were analyzed. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the one-factor model achieved adequate model fits; one item was deleted due to low factor loading. The revised SSAS-C showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The SSAS-C scores correlated positively with the scores of SCL-90 som, TAS-20 and the SHAI, showing good convergent validity. In addition, somatosensory amplification mediated the association between alexithymia and somatization. The Chinese version of SSAS has acceptable reliability and validity for the general population. In addition, alexithymia may increase somatization through higher somatosensory amplification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of research on human augmentation, multiple bodies are used in a virtual environment. For example, a study on multiple partial body parts has been conducted using up to 64 hands and showed that multiple hands reduced the distance traveled by one hand. However, body perception has yet to be verified. In this study, we investigated how body perception changes when nine hands, partial bodies, are moved synchronously in a virtual environment, compared to a single hand. In addition, we examined whether the sense of body ownership for all nine hands was elicited simultaneously or whether it was elicited for some of the hands while switching between them. Participants performed a reaching task using one or nine hands presented in a virtual environment. After the reaching task, a threat stimulus was given, and hand movements in response to the threat were measured. After completion of each condition, the subjective sense of body ownership and sense of agency was investigated using a Likert scale. The results indicated that users felt the sense of body ownership of several hands for the nine hands and manipulated them by switching their attention to multiple bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: We report a very unique clinical presentation of a patient who complained, after a left parietal brain damage, about feeling tactile stimulations on his right upper limb without being able to localize them. Methods: Using a single case study approach, we report three experiments relying on several custom-made tasks to explore the different levels of somatosensory information processing, ranging from somato-sensation to somato-representation. Results: Our results showed a preserved ability to localize tactile stimuli applied on the right upper limb when using pointing responses while the ability to localize was less efficient when having to name the stimulated part (akin Numbsense). When the stimuli were applied on more distal locations (i.e., on the hand and on fingers), the number of correct responses decreased significantly independently of the modality of response. Finally, when visually presented with a stimulus delivered on the hand of an examiner in synchrony with the stimulation on the hidden hand of the patient, responses were largely influenced by the visual information available. Altogether, the convergence of these different customized tasks revealed an absence of autotopagnosia for motor responses for the right upper limb, associated with altered abilities to discriminate stimulus applied on distal and restricted/closer zones in the hand. Discussion: The somato-representation of our patient seemed to significantly rely on visual information, leading to striking deficits to localize tactile stimuli when vision and somesthesic afferences are discordant. This case report offers a clinical illustration of pathological imbalance between vision and somesthesia. Implications of these troubles in somato-representation on higher cognitive level processes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuromodulating the locomotor network through spinal cord electrical stimulation (SCES) is effective for restoring function in individuals with gait deficits. However, SCES alone has limited effectiveness without concurrent locomotor function training that enhances activity-dependent plasticity of spinal neuronal networks by sensory feedback. This mini review discusses recent developments in using combined interventions, such as SCES added to exoskeleton gait training (EGT). To develop personalized therapies, it is crucial to assess the state of spinal circuitry through a physiologically relevant approach that identifies individual characteristics of spinal cord function to develop person-specific SCES and EGT. The existing literature suggests that combining SCES and EGT to activate the locomotor network can have a synergistic rehabilitative effect on restoring walking abilities, somatic sensation, and cardiovascular and bladder function in paralyzed individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sense of body ownership, a feeling that one’s body belongs to the self, is an essential aspect of self-consciousness. Studies have focused on emotions and bodily states that could influence multisensory integration for the sense of body ownership. Based on the Facial Feedback Hypothesis, the purpose of this study was to examine whether displaying specific facial expressions affects the rubber hand illusion. We hypothesized that the expression of a smiling face changes the emotional experience and facilitates the formation of a sense of body ownership. In the experiment, participants (n = 30) were asked to hold a wooden chopstick in their mouths to simulate smile, neutral, and disgusted facial expressions during the induction of the rubber hand illusion. The results did not support the hypothesis, showing that proprioceptive drift (an index of illusory experience) was enhanced when the subjects displayed a disgusted facial expression, while the subjective reports of the illusion were not affected. These results, together with the previous studies regarding the effect of positive emotions, suggest that bodily affective information, regardless of its valence, facilitates multisensory integration and could influence the conscious representation of the bodily self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subjective experience of embodying an avatar when immersed in virtual reality (VR) is known to support the sense of presence and to help with the interaction in a virtual environment. Virtual embodiment is often thought of as the consequence of replacement of the physical body by a virtual one, with a sense of agency for the avatar obtained by making the avatar’s body follow the user’s movements. This unidirectional motor link was, however, challenged by studies observing the opposite effect under different circumstances, for example, in a slow-motion context or when an arm movement was snapped on a predefined axis. These reports are, however, still rare or anecdotal. With the idea of a generalized bidirectional relationship between the user and the avatar in mind, we established a methodology to systematically provoke and study the circumstances under which participants follow the movements of their avatar during long repetitive movements without having been instructed to do so. A preliminary study confirmed that our virtual experimental setup, using full-body motion capture, avatar animation, and virtual mirrors, supports a strong sense of agency and body ownership for the avatar while enabling the experimental manipulation of the avatar’s movement. In the main experimental study, where participants performed repetitive upper- and lower-body movements while their avatar animations were either congruent or out-of-phase, we observed that almost all participants synchronized with their avatar at least once, for ~ 47% of trials for lower limb movements and ~ 38% for upper limb movements. Participants still reported low agency and ownership for the avatar under the incongruent condition, but, most interestingly, some of them also reported that their movements were not influenced by the avatar despite the behavioral effect. Our methodological approach and results contribute to the characterization of the conditions of occurrence of the self-avatar follower effect and, thereby, to identifying an enriched interaction design for VR, involving complex avatar–user mutual interdependencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The loss of the neural sensory function pathways between the stump limbs and the brain greatly impacts the rehabilitation of limb function and the daily lives of amputees. Non-invasive physical stressors, such as mechanical pressure and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), could be potential solutions for recovering somatic sensations in amputees. Previous studies have shown that stimulating the residual or regenerated nerves in the stumps of some amputees can produce phantom hand sensations. However, the results are inconclusive due to unstable physiological responses caused by inaccurate stimulus parameters and positions. Methods: In this study, we developed an optimal TENS strategy by mapping the distribution of the nerves in the stump skin that elicitsphantom sensations known as a “phantom hand map.” We evaluated the eectiveness and stability of the confirmed stimulus configuration in a long-term experiment using single- and multistimulus paradigms. Additionally, we evaluated the evoked sensations by recording electroencephalograms (EEG) and analyzing brain activities. Results: The results demonstrated that various types of intuitive sensations for amputees could be stably induced by adjusting TENS frequencies, particularly at 5 and 50 Hz. At these frequencies, 100% stability of sensory types was achieved when the stimuli were applied to two specific locations on the stump skin. Furthermore, at these locations, the stability of sensory positions was 100% across dierent days. Moreover, the evoked sensations were objectively supported by specific patterns of event-related potentials in brain responses. Discussion: This study provides an eective method for developing and evaluating physical stressor stimulus strategies, which could play an important role in the somatosensory rehabilitation of amputees and other patients suering from somatomotor sensory dysfunction. The paradigm developed in this study can provide eective guidelines for stimulus parameters in physical and electrical nerve stimulation treatments for a variety of symptoms related to neurological disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As obesity rates have risen around the world, so to have pregnancies complicated by maternal obesity. Obesity during pregnancy is not only associated with negative health outcomes for the mother and the baby during pregnancy and birth, there is also strong evidence that exposure to maternal obesity causes an increased risk to develop obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life. Animal models have demonstrated that increased weight gain in offspring exposed to maternal obesity is usually preceded by increased food intake, implicating altered neuronal control of food intake as a likely area of change. The hypothalamus is the primary site in the brain for maintaining energy homeostasis, which it coordinates by sensing whole body nutrient status and appropriately adjusting parameters including food intake. The development of the hypothalamus is plastic and regulated by metabolic hormones such as leptin, ghrelin and insulin, making it vulnerable to disruption in an obese in utero environment. This review will summarise how the hypothalamus develops, how maternal obesity impacts on structure and function of the hypothalamus in the offspring, and the factors that are altered in an obese in utero environment that may mediate the permanent changes to hypothalamic function in exposed individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it possible to feel part of one’s own body even when the body part is separated from the body? If so, we could exist in different locations by splitting the selfbody and using our body in each location. In a study in which the illusion that two bodies are one’s own body was induced using virtual reality (VR), the participants felt as if they were at two locations through the two bodies. However, this illusion was weak and reported only subjectively. We hypothesized that this was because two presented bodies moved synchronously with one participant’s movement or the simultaneous stroking of one participant’s body and two presented bodies switched their attention and weakened body ownership. In this study, we investigated whether splitting one body into left and right in VR could induce body ownership and extend the self-location while maintaining a one-to-one correspondence between the participant’s body and the presented body. The results showed that weaker body ownership was induced in the split body than in the normal body and self-location was extended to the right side of the body. The participants did not report a sense of having more than one body but reported a sense of body spreading, suggesting that the split bodies were perceived as a single body extending to the right side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proprioceptive acuity is of great significance in basic research exploring a possible neural mechanism of fine motor control and in neurorehabilitation practice promoting motor function recovery of limb-disabled people. Moreover, body representation relies on the integration of multiple somatic sensations, including proprioception that is mainly generated in muscles and tendons of human joints. This study aimed to examine two hypotheses: First, different extension positions of wrist joint have different proprioceptive acuities, which might indicate different body representations of wrist joint in the brain. Second, repetitive peripheral magnetic stimulation (rPMS) applied peripherally to the forearm radial nerve and extensors could change proprioceptive acuity at the wrist joint. Thirty-five healthy participants were recruited then randomly divided into the real stimulation group (n = 15) and the sham stimulation group (n = 20). The participants’ non-dominant side wrist joint position sense was tested at six extension positions within the physiological joint motion range (i.e., 10°, 20°, 30°, 40°, 50°, 60°) both before stimulation and after stimulation. Results showed that proprioceptive bias (arithmetic difference of target position and replicated position) among six extension positions could be divided into lower-extension position (i.e., 10°, 20°, 30°) and higher-extension position (i.e., 40°, 50°, 60°). One session rPMS could influence proprioceptive bias in lower-extension position but not in higher-extension position. However, proprioceptive precision (standard deviation within lower-extension position and higher-extension position) was not influenced. To conclude, proprioceptive bias may vary between different wrist extension positions due to different hand postures being related to changes in body representation, and different functions relating to proprioceptive bias and proprioceptive precision may underlie two aspects of body representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperpolarization-activated, cyclic nucleotide-sensitive (HCN) channels are key regulators of subthreshold membrane potentials in excitable cells. The four mammalian HCN channel isoforms, HCN1-HCN4, are expressed throughout the body, where they contribute to diverse physiological processes including cardiac pacemaking, sleep-wakefulness cycles, memory, and somatic sensation. While all HCN channel isoforms produce currents when expressed by themselves, an emerging list of interacting proteins shape HCN channel excitability to influence the physiologically relevant output. The best studied of these regulatory proteins is the auxiliary subunit, TRIP8b, which binds to multiple sites in the C-terminus of the HCN channels to regulate expression and disrupt cAMP binding to fine-tune neuronal HCN channel excitability. Less is known about the mechanisms of action of other HCN channel interaction partners like filamin A, Src tyrosine kinase, and MinK-related peptides, which have a range of effects on HCN channel gating and expression. More recently, the inositol trisphosphate receptor-associated cGMP-kinase substrates IRAG1 and LRMP (also known as IRAG2), were discovered as specific regulators of the HCN4 isoform. This review summarizes the known protein interaction partners of HCN channels and their mechanisms of action and identifies gaps in our knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our sense of body ownership results from the ongoing integration of perceptual information coming from the different senses (i.e., multisensory integration). The Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI) has been extensively studied to investigate the malleability of body ownership through contrasting multisensory information. Indeed, during the RHI, stroking a visible rubber hand synchronously to participants' hand hidden from sight generates the illusion of ownership of the rubber hand (embodiment) and the mis-location of participants' hand as closer to the rubber hand (proprioceptive drift). It is well known that the RHI is optimally evoked by a pleasant stroking (affective) touch, but what of an unpleasant (painful) stroking touch – does hedonic valence matter? To this aim, participants repeated the RHI while receiving different types of touch: pleasant, painful, and neutral. Results showed, for the first time, that the subjective intensity of the tactile stimulation experienced across the different conditions modulates the strength of the proprioceptive drift. Notably, participants reported a stronger RHI (mis-placed body ownership) from stimulation rated as more intense and involving an interoceptive activation (pain and pleasantness vs. neutral). We propose that interoceptive information, regardless of the valence of the stimuli (positive or negative), are perceived as more intense and enhance, through the activation of the limbic system, multisensory integration. In the context of the RHI, this translates to a stronger illusion in terms of proprioceptive drift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sense of body ownership, that is, the feeling that "my body belongs to me," has been examined by both the rubber hand illusion (RHI) and full body illusion (FBI). In a study that examined the relationship between RHI and depersonalization, a symptom in which people experience a lower sense of body ownership, people with a high depersonalization tendency experienced RHI through the bottom-up process of visual-tactile integration. Why is it that people with depersonalization feel a lower sense of body ownership over their bodies? Case studies of depersonalization suggest that the top-down cognition in people with depersonalization may make them less likely to feel a sense of body ownership. However, the top-down influence on the sense of body ownership in depersonalization has not yet been experimentally demonstrated. By incorporating top-down manipulation (e.g., instructing participants to regard a fake body as their own) into the FBI procedure, we aimed to clarify the cause of the reduced sense of body ownership in people with a high depersonalization tendency. The FBI procedure was conducted in a virtual reality environment using an avatar as a fake body. The avatar was presented from a third-person perspective, and visual-tactile stimuli were presented to create an illusion. To examine the degree of illusion, we measured the skin conductance responses to the fear stimulus presented after the visual-tactile stimuli presentation. The degree of depersonalization was measured using the Japanese version of the Cambridge Depersonalization Scale. To manipulate the top-down influence, we provided self-association instructions before the presentation of the visual-tactile stimuli. We predicted that the higher the degree of depersonalization, the lower the degree of illusion in the self-association instruction. The results showed that participants with a higher depersonalization tendency had a lower degree of illusion (rho = −0.424, p = 0.035) in the self-association condition. This indicates that in people with a high depersonalization tendency, top-down cognition of the body as their own leads to a decrease in the sense of body ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally acknowledged that the carotid body (CB) type I cell mitochondria are unique, being inhibited by relatively small falls in PaO2 well above those known to inhibit electron transport in other cell types. This feature is suggested to allow for the CB to function as an acute O2 sensor, being stimulated and activating systemic protective reflexes before the metabolism of other cells becomes compromised. What is less clear is precisely how a fall in mitochondrial activity links to type I cell depolarisation, a process that is required for initiation of the chemotransduction cascade and post-synaptic action potential generation. Multiple mitochondrial/metabolic signalling mechanisms have been proposed including local generation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mitoROS), a change in mitochondrial/cellular redox status, a fall in MgATP and an increase in lactate. Although each mechanism is based on compelling experimental evidence, they are all not without question. The current review aims to explore the importance of each of these signalling pathways in mediating the overall CB response to hypoxia. We suggest that there is unlikely to be a single mechanism, but instead multiple mitochondrial related signalling pathways are recruited at different PaO2s during hypoxia. Furthermore, it still remains to be determined if mitochondrial signalling acts independently or in partnership with extra-mitochondrial O2-sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been claimed that individuals with schizophrenia have difficulty in self-recognition and, consequently, are unable to identify the sources of their sensory perceptions or thoughts, resulting in delusions, hallucinations, and unusual experiences of body ownership. The deficits also contribute to the enhanced rubber hand illusion (RHI; a body perception illusion, induced by synchronous visual and tactile stimulation). Evidence based on RHI paradigms is emerging that auditory information can make an impact on the sense of body ownership, which relies on the process of multisensory inputs and integration. Hence, we assumed that auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs), as an abnormal auditory perception, could be linked with body ownership, and the RHI paradigm could be conducted in patients with AVHs to explore the underlying mechanisms. In this study, we investigated the performance of patients with/without AVHs in the RHI. We administered the RHI paradigm to 80 patients with schizophrenia (47 with AVHs and 33 without AVHs) and 36 healthy controls. We conducted the experiment under two conditions (synchronous and asynchronous) and evaluated the RHI effects by both objective and subjective measures. Both patient groups experienced the RHI more quickly and strongly than HCs. The RHI effects of patients with AVHs were significantly smaller than those of patients without AVHs. Another important finding was that patients with AVHs did not show a reduction in RHI under asynchronous conditions. These results emphasize the disturbances of the sense of body ownership in schizophrenia patients with/without AVHs and the associations with AVHs. Furthermore, it is suggested that patients with AVHs may have multisensory processing dysfunctions and internal timing deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human perception has long been a critical subject of design thinking. While various studies have stressed the link between thinking and acting, particularly in spatial experience, the term "design thinking" seems to disconnect conceptual thinking from physical expression or process. Spatial perception is multimodal and fundamentally bound to the body that is not a mere receptor of sensory stimuli but an active agent engaged with the perceivable environment. The body apprehends the experience in which one's kinesthetic engagement and knowledge play an essential role. Although design disciplines have integrated the abstract, metaphoric, and visual aspects of the body and its movement into conceptual thinking, studies have pointed out that design disciplines have emphasized visuality above the other sensory domains and heavily engaged with the perception of visual configurations, relying on the Gestalt principles. Gestalt psychology must be valued for its attention to a whole. However, the theories of design elements and principles over-empathizing such visuality posit the aesthetics of design mainly as visual value and understate other sensorial and perceptual aspects. Although the visual approach may provide a practical means to represent and communicate ideas, a design process heavily driven by visuality can exhibit weaknesses undermining certain aspects of spatial experience despite the complexity. Grounded in Merleau-Ponty's notion of multisensory perception, this article discusses the relationship between body awareness and spatial perception and its implication for design disciplines concerning built environments. Special attention is given to the concepts of kinesthetic and synesthetic phenomena known as multisensory and cross-sensory, respectively. This discussion integrates the corporeal and spatiotemporal realms of human experience into the discourse of kinesthetic and synesthetic perceptions. Based on the conceptual, theoretical, and precedent analyses, this article proposes three models for design thinking: Synesthetic Translation, Kinesthetic Resonance, and Kinesthetic Engagement. To discuss the concepts rooted in action-based perception and embodied cognition, this study borrows the neurological interpretation of haptic perception, interoception, and proprioception of space. This article suggests how consideration of the kinesthetic or synesthetic body can deepen and challenge the existing models of the perceptual aspects of environmental psychology adopted in design disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sense of body ownership, the feeling that one's own body belongs to oneself, is generated from the integration of visual, tactile, and proprioceptive information. However, long-term non-use of parts of the body due to physical dysfunction caused by trauma or illness may disturb multisensory integration, resulting in a decreased sense of body ownership. The rubber hand illusion (RHI) is an experimental method of manipulating the sense of ownership (SoO). In this illusion, subjects feel as if the rubber hand in front of them were their own hand. The RHI elicits the disownership phenomenon; not only does the rubber hand feels like one's own hand, but one's own hand does not feel like one's own hand. The decrease of ownership of one's own body induced by the bodily illusion is accompanied by neurophysiological changes, such as attenuation of somatosensory evoked potential and decreases in skin temperature. If the loss of the SoO is associated with decreased neurophysiological function, the dysfunction of patients complaining of the loss of ownership can be exacerbated; appropriate rehabilitation prescriptions are urgently required. The present study attempted to induce a sense of disownership of subjects' own hands using the RHI and investigated whether the tactile sensitivity threshold was altered by disownership. Via questionnaire, subjects reported a decrease of ownership after the RHI manipulation; at the same time, tactile sensitivity thresholds were shown to increase in tactile evaluation using the Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments test. The tactile detection rate changes before and after the RHI were negatively correlated with the disownership-score changes. These results show that subjects' sense of disownership, that their own hands did not belong to them, led to decreases in tactile sensitivity. The study findings also suggest that manipulating of illusory ownership can be a tool for estimating the degree of exacerbation of sensory impairment in patients. Consideration of new interventions that optimize the sense of body ownership may contribute to new rehabilitation strategies for post-stroke sensory impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is used by young people to induce relaxation and sleep and to reduce stress and anxiety; it comprises somatosensation caused by audiovisual stimuli (triggers) that lead to positive emotions. Auditory stimuli play the most important role among the triggers involved in ASMR and have been reported to be more triggering than visual stimuli. On the other hand, classical music is also known to have a relaxing effect. This is the first study to clarify the difference in brain activation associated with relaxation effects between ASMR and classical music by limiting ASMR to auditory stimulation alone. Methods: Thirty healthy subjects, all over 20 years of age, underwent fMRI while listening to ASMR and classical music. We compared the differences in brain activation associated with classical music and ASMR stimulation. After the experiment, the subjects were administered a questionnaire on somatosensation and moods. After the experiment, the participants were asked whether they experienced ASMR somatosensation or frisson. They were also asked to rate the intensity of two moods during stimulation: "comfortable mood," and "tingling mood". Result: The results of the questionnaire showed that none of the participants experienced any ASMR somatosensation or frisson. Further, there was no significant difference in the ratings given to comfort mood, but there was a significant difference in those given to tingling mood. In terms of brain function, classical music and ASMR showed significant activation in common areas, while ASMR showed activation in more areas, with the medial prefrontal cortex being the main area of activation during ASMR. Conclusion: Both classical music and the ASMR auditory stimulus produced a pleasant and relaxed state, and ASMR involved more complex brain functions than classical music, especially the activation of the medial prefrontal cortex. Although ASMR was limited to auditory stimulation, the effects were similar to those of listening to classical music, suggesting that ASMR stimulation can produce a pleasant state of relaxation even if it is limited to the auditory component, without the somatic sensation of tingling. ASMR stimulation is easy to use, and appropriate for wellness purposes and a wide range of people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study was to investigate the role of the subjective assessment of one's body image in the relationship between objective indices of appearance and perceived stigma in young women affected by obesity and psoriasis. These are chronic diseases that decrease one's physical attractiveness and are associated with stigmas related to body defects. A total of 188 women in early adulthood took part in the study (M = 25.58; SD = 2.90), including obese women (n = 54), women suffering from psoriasis (n = 57), and a control group (n = 77). The participants completed the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, Perceived Stigmatisation Questionnaire, and a socio-demographic questionnaire. Anthropometric data were gathered using a body composition analyzer. Objective parameters of body shape were calculated (WHR and ICO). Subjective assessment of one's body and attitudes towards one's body were found to influence perceived stigma, independently of the condition causing the stigma and of the objective appearance of the participant. This study did not support the existence of a relationship between parameters regarding body shape and sense of stigma, even when subjective body assessment acted as a moderator. At the same time, body mass was a strong predictor of levels of perceived stigma. Women affected with obesity perceived a higher level of stigma than the other groups. The severity of psoriasis did not impact the perceived stigma. Moreover, women with psoriasis assessed their health—as a part of the assessment of their bodies—the highest, which may explain the lower perceived stigma in this group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotions are by nature embodied, as the brain has evolved to quickly assess the emotional significance of stimuli and output signals to the body's viscera and periphery to aid adaptive responses. Emotions involve both implicit bodily and explicit narrative processes, and patients may experience transdiagnostic distress when bodily signals are not attended to and holistically integrated with explicit narratives about experience. Similarly, therapists may be trained in more implicit body-based approaches (i.e., massage/bodywork, physical and occupational therapy, and nursing/medicine) or more explicit narrative-based approaches (i.e., psychotherapy), and may lack training in skills that integrate both levels of emotion processing to aid healing and growth. To address these gaps, we propose a framework where the bridge between implicit bodily sensations and explicit narratives lies in cultivating mindful awareness of bodily sensations associated with emotions. This process brings subjective awareness to notice inner body experience (or interoceptive awareness) that is often outside of conscious awareness, so that it may be understood and re-integrated in more adaptive ways, which we call somatic reappraisal. Using clinical theory and example vignettes, we present mindful interoceptive awareness for adaptive emotion processing as a framework to cultivate and enhance somatic reappraisal. Mindful interoceptive awareness brings more focused and sustained attention to inner body experience; likewise, internal sensations associated with emotions become more granular, vivid, and can shift in ways that facilitate somatic reappraisal. Learning to sustain interoceptive awareness when engaged with mindfulness qualities of nonjudgment and compassion promotes an experience where new associations between emotions, meanings, and memories can be made that generate insights that are holistic and integrative. A clinical vignette is used in this paper to provide examples of this approach in psychotherapy. An example script for use in mindfulness groups is included, and resources are suggested for clinicians to gain more experience. Mindful interoceptive awareness for adaptive emotion processing is a clinical process that can be learned and applied by a range of clinicians to treat mental and physical health conditions that may benefit greater embodied awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objects which a human agent controls by efferent activities (such as real or virtual tools) can be perceived by the agent as belonging to his or her body. This suggests that what an agent counts as "body" is plastic, depending on what she or he controls. Yet there are possible limitations for such momentary plasticity. One of these limitations is that sensations stemming from the body (e.g., proprioception) and sensations stemming from objects outside the body (e.g., vision) are not integrated if they do not sufficiently "match". What "matches" and what does not is conceivably determined by long–term experience with the perceptual changes that body movements typically produce. Children have accumulated less sensorimotor experience than adults have. Consequently, they express higher flexibility to integrate body-internal and body-external signals, independent of their "match" as suggested by rubber hand illusion studies. However, children's motor performance in tool use is more affected by mismatching body-internal and body-external action effects than that of adults, possibly because of less developed means to overcome such mismatches. We review research on perception-action interactions, multisensory integration, and developmental psychology to build bridges between these research fields. By doing so, we account for the flexibility of the sense of body ownership for actively controlled events and its development through ontogeny. This gives us the opportunity to validate the suggested mechanisms for generating ownership by investigating their effects in still developing and incomplete stages in children. We suggest testable predictions for future studies investigating both body ownership and motor skills throughout the lifespan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rubber hand illusion (RHI) is one of the most commonly used paradigms to examine the sense of body ownership. Touches are synchronously applied to the real hand, hidden from view, and a false hand in an anatomically congruent position. During the illusion one may perceive that the feeling of touch arises from the false hand (referral of touch), and that the false hand is one's own. The relationship between referral of touch and body ownership in the illusion is unclear, and some articles average responses to statements addressing these experiences, which may be inappropriate depending on the research question of interest. To address these concerns, we re-analyzed three freely available datasets to better understand the relationship between referral of touch and feeling of ownership in the RHI. We found that most participants who report a feeling of ownership also report referral of touch, and that referral of touch and ownership show a moderately strong positive relationship that was highly replicable. In addition, referral of touch tends to be reported more strongly and more frequently than the feeling of ownership over the hand. The former observations confirm that referral of touch and ownership are related experiences in the RHI. The latter, however, indicate that when pooling the statements one may obtain a higher number of illusion 'responders' compared to considering the ownership statements in isolation. These results have implications for the RHI as an experimental paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interoception in the broader sense refers to the perception of internal states, including the perception of the actual state of the internal organs (visceroception) and the motor system (proprioception). Dimensions of interoception include (1) interoceptive accuracy, i.e., the ability to sense internal changes assessed with behavioral tests, (2) confidence rating with respect to perceived performance in an actual behavioral test, and (3) interoceptive sensibility, i.e., the self-reported generalized ability to perceive body changes. The relationship between dimension of cardioceptive and proprioceptive modalities and their association with affect are scarcely studied. In the present study, undergraduate students (N = 105, 53 males, age: 21.0 ± 1.87 years) filled out questionnaires assessing positive and negative affect (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule), interoceptive sensibility (Body Awareness Questionnaire), and body competence (Body Competence Scale of the Body Consciousness Questionnaire). Following this, they completed a behavioral task assessing cardioceptive accuracy (the mental heartbeat tracking task by Schandry) and two tasks assessing proprioceptive accuracy with respect to the tension of arm flexor muscles (weight discrimination task) and the angular position of the elbow joint (joint position reproduction task). Confidence ratings were measured with visual analog scales after the tasks. With the exception of a weak association between cardioceptive accuracy and the respective confidence rating, no associations between and within modalities were found with respect to various dimensions of interoception. Further, the interoceptive dimensions were not associated with state and trait positive and negative affect and perceived body competence. In summary, interoceptive accuracy scores do not substantially contribute to conscious representations of cardioceptive and proprioceptive ability. Within our data, non-pathological affective states (PANAS) are not associated with the major dimensions of interoception for the cardiac and proprioceptive modalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Awareness of internal bodily sensations (interoceptive awareness; IA) and its connection to complex socioemotional abilities like empathy has been postulated, yet the functional neural circuitry they share remains poorly understood. The present fMRI study employs independent component analysis (ICA) to investigate which empathy facet (Cognitive or Affective) shares resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) and/or BOLD variability (rsBOLD) with IA. Healthy participants viewed an abstract nonsocial movie demonstrated to evoke strong rsFC in brain networks resembling rest (InScapes), and resultant rsFC and rsBOLD data were correlated with self-reported empathy and IA questionnaires. We demonstrate a bidirectional behavioral and neurobiological relationship between empathy and IA, depending on the type of empathy interrogated: Affective empathy and IA share both rsFC and rsBOLD, while Cognitive empathy and IA only share rsBOLD. Specifically, increased rsFC in the right inferior frontal operculum (rIFO) of a larger attention network was associated with increased vicarious experience but decreased awareness of inner body sensations. Furthermore, increased rsBOLD between brain regions of an interoceptive network was related to increased sensitivity to internal sensations along with decreased Affective empathy. Finally, increased rsBOLD between brain regions subserving a mentalizing network related to not only an improved ability to take someone's perspective, but also a better sense of mind-body interconnectedness. Overall, these findings suggest that the awareness of one's own internal body changes (IA) is related to the socioemotional ability of feeling and understanding another's emotional state (empathy) and critically, that this relationship is reflected in the brain's resting state neuroarchitecture. Methodologically, this work highlights the importance of utilizing rsBOLD as a complementary window alongside rsFC to better understand neurological phenomena. Our results may be beneficial in aiding diagnosis in clinical populations such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), where participants may be unable to complete tasks or questionnaires due to the severity of their symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Sensing body-related information includes interoceptive sensibility (the tendency to focus on internal body sensations) and accuracy (precision in perceiving real internal processes). Interoception and emotion regulation have both been linked to alcohol use disorder (AUD). However, the association between these factors have not been investigated within a clinical group of individuals with AUD. Objectives: The current study examines associations between emotion regulation and interoceptive accuracy and sensibility among individuals with AUD and healthy controls (HCs). Methods: The sample comprised 165 individuals meeting criteria for AUD and 110 HCs. Interoceptive sensibility was assessed with a self-report measure (the Private Body Consciousness subscale) and interoceptive accuracy – with a behavioral measure (the Schandry test). Emotion regulation domains: non-acceptance of negative emotions, inability to engage in goal-directed behaviors when experiencing negative emotions, difficulties controlling impulsive behaviors when experiencing negative emotions, limited access to effective emotion regulation strategies, and lack of own emotional awareness and clarity were assessed with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Associations between interoception and emotion regulation were assessed while controlling for sleep problems, depressive symptoms, age, and sex. Results: Higher interoceptive accuracy was negatively associated with DERS subscale of non-acceptance of negative emotions in the AUD group (but not in the HC group). Higher interoceptive sensibility was significantly associated with problems in controlling impulsive behaviors when experiencing negative emotions. This association was moderated by symptoms of AUD. Higher interoceptive sensibility was associated with higher emotional awareness, but only in the HC group. Conclusions: Individuals with AUD who are more interoceptively accurate may be more effective in regulating their emotions. On the other hand, individuals with AUD who are more interoceptively sensible, may have problems with controlling their behaviors while experiencing negative emotional states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectification theorists posit that exposure to sexually objectifying behavior, images, etc., leads women in particular to adopt an objectifying self-perspective. State self-objectification (SSO) (i.e., the internalization of the objectifying gaze) is theorized to usurp individuals' cognitive resources by diverting attention to their bodies. The objective of this paper is to systematically review the literature surrounding self-objectification and cognitive performance. Six databases retrieved 1,779 relevant articles. Studies were deemed eligible for inclusion if they (a) quantitatively investigated the relationship between SSO and cognitive performance using valid and reliable measures, (b) were published in a peer-reviewed journal between 1997 and 2019, inclusive, and (c) were available in English. Nine studies fulfilled all inclusion criteria. As the heterogeneity of the literature precluded meta-analysis, narrative synthesis was employed to review the results. While the quality of the studies was mixed, the results of our review support the contention that self-objectification impairs cognitive functioning. Appearance monitoring, actual-ideal self-discrepancies, negative self-conscious emotions, gender schema activation, and stereotype activation are evaluated as potential mechanisms behind the relationship between state self-objectification and cognitive performance, while chronic (trait) self-objectification is evaluated as a potential moderator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have revealed that hardness perception is determined by visual information along with the haptic input. This study investigated the cortical regions involved in hardness perception modulated by visual information using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA). Twenty-two healthy participants were enrolled. They were required to place their left and right hands at the front and back, respectively, of a mirror attached to a platform placed above them while lying in a magnetic resonance scanner. In conditions SFT, MED, and HRD, one of three polyurethane foam pads of varying hardness (soft, medium, and hard, respectively) was presented to the left hand in a given trial, while only the medium pad was presented to the right hand in all trials. MED was defined as the control condition, because the visual and haptic information was congruent. During the scan, the participants were required to push the pad with the both hands while observing the reflection of the left hand and estimate the hardness of the pad perceived by the right (hidden) hand based on magnitude estimation. Behavioral results showed that the perceived hardness was significantly biased toward softer or harder in >73% of the trials in conditions SFT and HRD; we designated these trials as visually modulated (SFTvm and HRDvm, respectively). The accuracy map was calculated individually for each of the pair-wise comparisons of (SFTvm vs. MED), (HRDvm vs. MED), and (SFTvm vs. HRDvm) by a searchlight MVPA, and the cortical regions encoding the perceived hardness with visual modulation were identified by conjunction of the three accuracy maps in group analysis. The cluster was observed in the right sensory motor cortex, left anterior intraparietal sulcus (aIPS), bilateral parietal operculum (PO), and occipito-temporal cortex (OTC). Together with previous findings on such cortical regions, we conclude that the visual information of finger movements processed in the OTC may be integrated with haptic input in the left aIPS, and the subjective hardness perceived by the right hand with visual modulation may be processed in the cortical network between the left PO and aIPS.

Recent studies have revealed that hardness perception is determined by visual information along with the haptic input. This study investigated the cortical regions involved in hardness perception modulated by visual information using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA). Twenty-two healthy participants were enrolled. They were required to place their left and right hands at the front and back, respectively, of a mirror attached to a platform placed above them while lying in a magnetic resonance scanner. In conditions SFT, MED, and HRD, one of three polyurethane foam pads of varying hardness (soft, medium, and hard, respectively) was presented to the left hand in a given trial, while only the medium pad was presented to the right hand in all trials. MED was defined as the control condition, because the visual and haptic information was congruent. During the scan, the participants were required to push the pad with the both hands while observing the reflection of the left hand and estimate the hardness of the pad perceived by the right (hidden) hand based on magnitude estimation. Behavioral results showed that the perceived hardness was significantly biased toward softer or harder in >73% of the trials in conditions SFT and HRD; we designated these trials as visually modulated (SFTvm and HRDvm, respectively). The accuracy map was calculated individually for each of the pair-wise comparisons of (SFTvm vs. MED), (HRDvm vs. MED), and (SFTvm vs. HRDvm) by a searchlight MVPA, and the cortical regions encoding the perceived hardness with visual modulation were identified by conjunction of the three accuracy maps in group analysis. The cluster was observed in the right sensory motor cortex, left anterior intraparietal sulcus (aIPS), bilateral parietal operculum (PO), and occipito-temporal cortex (OTC). Together with previous findings on such cortical regions, we conclude that the visual information of finger movements processed in the OTC may be integrated with haptic input in the left aIPS, and the subjective hardness perceived by the right hand with visual modulation may be processed in the cortical network between the left PO and aIPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Body image disturbance has been highlighted as a common characteristic within the development and maintenance of clinical eating disorders (EDs), represented by alterations in an individual's bodily experience. However, whilst the perceptual stability of the sense of body ownership has been investigated in ED patients, the stability of the sense of body agency in those with ED is yet to be examined. Therefore, body ownership and body agency were investigated using the moving rubber hand illusion, alongside measures of explicit and implicit body satisfaction. Furthermore, with evidence demonstrating a direct link between perceptual and cognitive-affective components of body image in the healthy population, the relationship between measures of body perception and body satisfaction was investigated. Results showed that both ED and healthy individuals displayed a similar subjective experience of illusory ownership and agency towards the fake hand, following voluntary movement. However, whilst both groups initially overestimated their own hand width prior to the illusion, the ED group displayed a significant reduction in hand size estimation following the illusion, which was not matched to the same degree in healthy individuals. In addition, ED individuals displayed a significantly lower body satisfaction compared with healthy females, on both an explicit and implicit level. Such implicit outcomes were shown to be driven specifically by a weaker association between the self and attractiveness. Finally, a significant relationship was observed between specific perceptual measures and implicit body satisfaction, which highlights the important link between perceptual and cognitive-affective components of one's body image. Together, such findings provide a useful foundation for further research to study the conditions in which these two components relate with regard to body image and its disturbance, particularly in relation to the prognosis and treatment of EDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although sedatives can defuse anxiety and relieve pain, Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) still is uncomfortable and threatening for some patients. Identifying patients who tolerate digestive endoscopy less well remains difficult. Using a prospective design and a multimodal assessment of pain, the present study evaluated how anxiety-related variables predicted subsequent pain outcomes. Sixty-two consecutive patients referred for elective EGD were assessed for intolerance of uncertainty (IU), procedure-related worries, anxiety sensitivity and health distress before endoscopy. During endoscopy, a doctor rated patients' pain behavior. After complete recovery from sedation, the patients retrospectively rated endoscopy pain and situation specific catastrophizing thoughts. Descriptive analyses showed that patients undergoing EGD for the first time were more distressed and anxious than patients accustomed to the procedure and needed a higher sedative dose. Notwithstanding sedation, the behavioral rating of pain was above the cut-off value for probable pain for more than half of the patients. IU assessed before endoscopy predicted situational pain catastrophizing (PC) and self-reported pain after endoscopy through procedure related worries. Situational PC not only mediated the effect of worry, but also female gender and younger age were associated with self-reported pain through increased catastrophizing thoughts. Health distress and anxiety sensitivity predicted PC only for women, younger patients, and those not accustomed to the procedure. Our study showed that psychological preparation before sedation is needed especially for first-timers, women, and younger patients, addressing maladaptive cognitive beliefs and acquainting patients with the somatic sensations that they might experience during the procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current empirical work suggests that early social experiences could have a substantial impact on the areas of the brain responsible for representation of the body. In this context, one aspect of functioning that may be particularly susceptible to social experiences is interoception. Interoceptive functioning has been linked to several areas of the brain which show protracted post-natal development, thus leaving a substantial window of opportunity for environmental input to impact the development of the interoceptive network. In this paper we report findings from two existing datasets showing significant relationships between attachment related processes and interoception. In the first study, looking at a sample of healthy young adults (n = 132, 66 males), we assessed self-reported interoceptive awareness as assessed with the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (Mehling et al., 2012) and attachment style as assessed with the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale-Short (Wei et al., 2007). We found relationships between aspects of interoception and attachment style such that avoidant individuals reported lower interoceptive functioning across several dimensions [ r 's(130) = -0.20 to -0.26, p 's < 0.05]. More anxious individuals, on the other hand, reported heightened interoceptive across several dimensions [ r 's(130) = 0.18 to 0.43, p 's < 0.05]. In the second study, we examined the congruence between a youth's self-reported negative emotion and a measure of sympathetic nervous system arousal (SCL). The congruence score was positively associated with parental rejection of negative emotion. These results suggest that parenting style, as reported by the mother, are associated with a youth's ability to coordinate their self-reported emotional and physiological responding across a series of independent assessments, r (108) = -0.24, p < 0.05. In other words, the more maternal reported parental rejection of youth negative emotions, the less congruent a youth's self and physiological reports of distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The angular gyrus (AG) is a hub of several networks that are involved in various functions, including attention, self-processing, semantic information processing, emotion regulation, and mentalizing. Since these functions are required in music performance, it is likely that the AG plays a role in music performance. Considering that these functions emerge as network properties, this study analyzed the functional connectivity of the AG during the imagined music performance task and the resting condition. Our hypothesis was that the functional connectivity of the AG is modulated by imagined music performance. In the resting condition, the AG had connections with the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and precuneus as well as the superior and inferior frontal gyri and with the temporal cortex. Compared with the resting condition, imagined music performance increased the functional connectivity of the AG with the superior frontal gyrus (SFG), mPFC, precuneus, PCC, hippocampal/parahippocampal gyrus (H/PHG), and amygdala. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and superior temporal gyrus (STG) were newly engaged or added to the AG network during the task. In contrast, the supplementary motor area (SMA), sensorimotor areas, and occipital regions, which were anti-correlated with the AG in the resting condition, were disengaged during the task. These results lead to the conclusion that the functional connectivity of the AG is modulated by imagined music performance, which suggests that the AG plays a role in imagined music performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in urinary bladder function and somatic sensation may be mediated, in part, by inflammatory changes in the urinary bladder including the expression of chemokines. Male and female C57BL/6 mice were treated with cyclophosphamide (CYP; 75 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg, i.p.) to induce bladder inflammation (4 h, 48 h, chronic). We characterized the expression of CXC chemokines (CXCL9, CXCL10 and CXCL11) in the urinary bladder and determined the effects of blockade of their common receptor, CXCR3, at the level urinary bladder on bladder function and somatic (hindpaw and pelvic) sensation. qRT-PCR and Enzyme-Linked Immunoassays (ELISAs) were used to determine mRNA and protein expression of CXCL9, CXCL10 and CXCL11 in urothelium and detrusor. In urothelium of female mice treated with CYP, CXCL9 and CXCL10 mRNA significantly (p ≤ 0.01) increased with CYP treatment whereas CXC mRNA expression in the detrusor exhibited both increases and decreases in expression with CYP treatment. CXC mRNA expression urothelium and detrusor of male mice was more variable with both significant (p ≤ 0.01) increases and decreases in expression depending on the specific CXC chemokine and CYP treatment. CXCL9 and CXCL10 protein expression was significantly (p ≤ 0.01) increased in the urinary bladder with 4 h CYP treatment in female mice whereas CXC protein expression in the urinary bladder of male mice did not exhibit an overall change in expression. CXCR3 blockade with intravesical instillation of AMG487 (5 mg/kg) significantly (p ≤ 0.01) increased bladder capacity, reduced voiding frequency and reduced non-voiding contractions in female mice treated with CYP (4 h, 48 h). CXCR3 blockade also reduced (p ≤ 0.01) hindpaw and pelvic sensitivity in female mice treated with CYP (4 h, 48 h). CXC chemokines may be novel targets for treating urinary bladder dysfunction and somatic sensitization resulting from urinary bladder inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Somatic Experiencing® (SE™) is a resiliency-based treatment for autonomic nervous systems dysregulation syndromes, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, and physical syndromes like chronic pain, migraines, and fibromyalgia. "Transgender/gender non-conforming/gender variant" describes people whose gender identity/expression is different, at least part of the time, from the sex assigned at birth. Research indicates transgender individuals have a higher incidence of depression, anxiety, victimization, and discrimination. SE™ tools may support transgender/gender non-conforming individuals to increase resilience in the face of discrimination and social injustice. Methods: This study is a pretest posttest within group (N = 7) pilot study assessing the impact of a 10 session SE™ based group treatment on depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), somatic symptoms (PHQ-15), quality of life (QoL) (WHOQoL-BREF), and coping with discrimination (CDS) for a cohort of seven individuals identifying as transgender/gender non-conforming. Materials were created in collaboration with members of the LGBTQIA community. Care was taken to be inclusive of gender non-conforming identities and culturally responsive in design. Results: Participants described their gender identities as: non-binary, female to male, male to female, and gender fluid. Participants had significant increase in psychological QoL (psychological well-being) (WHOQoL-BREF) p = 0.004, SD = 2.31, with a modest effect size of d = 0.71. Some likely impacts of historical effect discussed. No other clinical or QoL outcomes were statistically significant. However, one outlier was identified in the dataset. When this outlier was excluded there was a trend toward significant reduction in depression symptoms (PhQ-9) p = 0.097, SD = 3.31 and a modest effect size of d = 0.68; somatic symptoms (PhQ-15) p = 0.093, SD = 3.52 and a modest effect size of d = 0.72. Conclusion: These data indicate that a brief 10 session intervention of SE™ could have a meaningful impact on symptoms of depression, somatization, and QoL for gender non-conforming individuals. Further research is warranted. Limitations: First, this study has a small sample size limiting statistical power and generalizability. Second is a history effect. Less than 1 week prior to final data collection, there was a significant hate-motivated act in Florida targeting the LGBTQIA community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Interoceptive processes are defined as ability to detect sensations arising within the body. There is a growing body of research investigating ways of improving interoceptive processes. One promising approach increasing the attention to bodily sensations is the body scan (BS), a method stemming from mindfulness-based stress reduction. Research so far revealed only heterogenous findings of meditational practice and mindfulness-based stress reduction on interoceptive processes. Even more importantly, there is no study considering the effect of an 8-week BS intervention on interoceptive processes and the distinguishable subdomains of interoception. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to examine the effects of a BS intervention on different interoceptive subdomains over 8 weeks of training in two different samples. Methods: In study 1, healthy participants executed a 20 min standardized audiotaped BS in the BS intervention group (n = 25) each day over 8 weeks. The control group (n = 24) listened to an audio book for the same amount of time. In study 2, the BS group (n D 18) was compared to an inactive control group (n = 18). In both studies, three measurement points were realized and interoceptive accuracy (IAc) - using a heartbeat perception task - as well as interoceptive sensibility (IS) - using confidence ratings for the heartbeat perception task and the subscale 'interoceptive awareness' of the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2) - were assessed. Results: In study 1, we found, as a descriptive trend, IAc and confidence ratings to be increased irrespective of the condition. However, post hoc analysis revealed a significant improvement of IAc between T1 and T3 in the BS intervention only. IS revealed to be unaffected by the interventions. In study 2, we observed a significant positive effect of the BS intervention on IAc and confidence ratings compared to the inactive controls. As in study 1, IS (EDI-2) was unaffected by the intervention. Discussion: The results highlight the fact that interoception can be improved by long-term interventions focusing on bodily signals. Further studies might focus on clinical samples showing deficits in interoceptive processes and could use other bodily systems for measurement (e.g., respiratory signals) as well methods manipulating body ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although movement has long been recognized as expressing emotion and as an agent of change for emotional state, there was a dearth of scientific evidence specifying which aspects of movement influence specific emotions. The recent identification of clusters of Laban movement components which elicit and enhance the basic emotions of anger, fear, sadness and happiness indicates which types of movements can affect these emotions (Shafir et al., 2016), but not how best to apply this knowledge. This perspective paper lays out a conceptual groundwork for how to effectively use these new findings to support emotional resiliency through voluntary choice of one’s posture and movements. We suggest that three theoretical principles from Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) can guide the gradual change in movement components in one’s daily movements to somatically support shift in affective state: (A) Introduce newmovement components in developmental order; (B) Use LMA affinities-among-components to guide the expansion of expressive movement range and (C) Sequence change among components based on Laban’s Space Harmony theory to support the gradual integration of that new range. The methods postulated in this article have potential to foster resiliency and provide resources for self-efficacy by expanding our capacity to adapt emotionally to challenges through modulating our movement responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stroke is a leading cause of disability worldwide. It leads to a sudden and overwhelming disruption in one’s physical body, and alters the stroke survivors’ sense of self. Long-term recovery requires that bodily perception, social participation and sense of self are restored; this is challenging to achieve, particularly with a single intervention. However, rhythmic synchronization of movement to external stimuli facilitates sensorimotor coupling for movement recovery, enhances emotional engagement and has positive effects on interpersonal relationships. In this proof-of-concept study, we designed a group music-making intervention, Music Upper Limb Therapy-Integrated (MULT-I), to address the physical, psychological and social domains of rehabilitation simultaneously, and investigated its effects on long-term post-stroke upper limb recovery. The study used a mixed-method pre-post design with 1-year follow up. Thirteen subjects completed the 45-min intervention twice a week for 6 weeks. The primary outcome was reduced upper limb motor impairment on the Fugl-Meyer Scale (FMS). Secondary outcomes included sensory impairment (two-point discrimination test), activity limitation (Modified Rankin Scale, MRS), well-being (WHO well-being index), and participation (Stroke Impact Scale, SIS). Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test for differences between pre- and post-intervention, and 1-year follow up scores. Significant improvement was found in upper limb motor impairment, sensory impairment, activity limitation and well-being immediately post-intervention that persisted at 1 year. Activities of daily living and social participation improved only from post-intervention to 1-year follow up. The improvement in upper limb motor impairment was more pronounced in a subset of lower functioning individuals as determined by their pre-intervention wrist range of motion. Qualitatively, subjects reported new feelings of ownership of their impaired limb, more spontaneous movement, and enhanced emotional engagement. The results suggest that the MULT-I intervention may help stroke survivors re-create their sense of self by integrating sensorimotor, emotional and interoceptive information and facilitate long-term recovery across multiple domains of disability, even in the chronic stage post-stroke. Randomized controlled trials are warranted to confirm the efficacy of this approach. Clinical Trial Registration: National Institutes of Health, clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01586221. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes a cost-effective screening protocol for parkinsonism based on combined objective and subjective monitoring of balance function. Objective evaluation of balance function was performed using a game industry balance board and an automated analyses of the dynamic of the center of pressure in time, frequency, and non-linear domains collected during short series of stand up tests with different modalities and severity of sensorial deprivation. The subjective measurement of balance function was performed using the Dizziness Handicap Inventory questionnaire. Principal component analyses on both objective and subjectivemeasurements of balance function allowed to obtained a specificity and selectivity for parkinsonian patients (vs. healthy subjects) of 0.67 and 0.71 respectively. The findings are discussed regarding the relevance of cost-effective balance-based screening system as strategy to meet the needs of broader and earlier screening for parkinsonism in communities with limited access to healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimental objective: To provide a safe, simple, relatively inexpensive, fast, accurate way of quantifying balance performance either in isolation, or in the face of challenges provided by 3D high definition moving visual stimuli as well as by the proprioceptive challenge from standing on a foam pad. This method uses the new technology of the Wii balance board to measure postural stability during powerful, realistic visual challenges from immersive virtual reality. Limitations of current techniques: Present computerized methods for measuring postural stability are large, complex, slow, and expensive, and do not allow for testing the response to realistic visual challenges. Protocol: Subjects stand on a 6 cm thick, firm, foam pad on a Wii balance board. They wear a fast, high resolution, low persistence, virtual reality head set (Oculus Rift DK2). This allows displays of varying speed, direction, depth, and complexity to be delivered. The subject experiences a visual illusion of real objects fixed relative to the world, and any of these displays can be perturbed in an unpredictable fashion. A special app (BalanceRite) used the same procedures for analyzing postural analysis as used by the Equitest. Power of the technique: Four simple "proof of concept" experiments demonstrate that this technique matches the gold standard Equitest in terms of the measurement of postural stability but goes beyond the Equitest by measuring stability in the face of visual challenges, which are so powerful that even healthy subjects fall. The response to these challenges presents an opportunity for predicting falls and for rehabilitation of seniors and patients with poor postural stability. Significance for the field: This new method provides a simpler, quicker, cheaper method of measurement than the Equitest. It may provide a new mode of training to prevent falls, by maintaining postural stability in the face of visual and proprioceptive challenges similar to those encountered in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Damasio introduced the somatic markers hypothesis in Damasio (1994), it has spread through the psychological community, where it is now commonly acknowledged that somatic states are a factor in producing the qualitative dimension of our experiences. Present actions are emotionally guided by those somatic states that were previously activated in similar experiences. In this model, somatic markers serve as a kind of embodied memory. Here, we test whether the manipulation of somatic markers can modulate the emotional evaluation of negative memories. Because facial feedback has been shown to be a powerful means of modifying emotional judgements, we used it to manipulate somatic markers. Participants first read a sad story in order to induce a negative emotional memory and then were asked to rate their emotions and memory about the text. Twenty-four hours later, the same participants were asked to assume a predetermined facial feedback (smiling) while reactivating their memory of the sad story. The participants were once again asked to fill in emotional and memory questionnaires about the text. Our results showed that participants who had smiled during memory reactivation later rated the text less negatively than control participants. However, the contraction of the zygomaticus muscles during memory reactivation did not have any impact on episodic memory scores. This suggests that manipulating somatic states modified emotional memory without affecting episodic memory. Thus, modulating memories through bodily states might pave the way to studying memory as an embodied function and help shape new kinds of psychotherapeutic interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Somatic, but not cognitive-affective, symptoms of depression have been associated with reduced heart rate variability (HRV), and with poor prognosis in cardiovascular patients. However, factors concomitant with cardiovascular diseases may confound the relationship between somatic symptoms of depression and reduced HRV. Therefore, this study examined whether reduced HRV was differentially associated with cognitive--affective and somatic symptoms of depression in medically healthy individuals with and without dysphoria. Methods: Self-reported cognitive--affective and somatic symptoms as measured with the Beck Depression Inventory-II questionnaire and time and frequency domain parameters of HRV were collected in 62 medically healthy individuals, of whom 25 with and 37 without dysphoria. Results: Somatic, but not cognitive--affective, symptoms of depression were inversely associated with SD of NN intervals (β = -0.476, p < 0.05), number of interval differences of successive NN intervals greater than 50 ms (NN50; β = -0.498, p < 0.03), and HRV total power (β = -0.494, p < 0.04) in the group with dysphoria, after controlling for sex, anxiety, and lifestyle factors. Cognitive--affective and somatic symptoms were not related to any of the HRV parameters in the group without dysphoria (all ps > 0.24). Conclusion: By showing that the relationship between somatic depressive symptoms and reduced HRV extends to medically healthy individuals with dysphoria, the present findings suggest that this association is independent of factors concomitant with cardiovascular diseases. The present study also suggests that individuals with somatic rather than cognitive--affective subsets of depressive symptoms may be at greater risk for developing cardiovascular diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]