Interactions Between Body and Social Awareness in Yoga

Proprioception, Emotion and Social Responsiveness in Children with Developmental Disorders: An Exploratory Study in Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cerebral Palsy and Different Neurodevelopmental Situations

Proprioception has long been linked with emotional dysregulation in neurotypical adults. Neuropediatric disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and cerebral palsy (CP) are distinct entities and yet both present with deficits and challenges in sensory processing and the regulation of emotions. This study aimed to explore the relationship between proprioception and emotional-social performance in children and to compare proprioception and emotional-social performance in different underlying neurodevelopmental conditions. For this purpose, this cross-sectional study included 42 children with ASD, 34 children with CP and 50 typically developing peers. Proprioceptive acuity, proprioceptive reactive behavior as well as emotion regulation and social responsiveness were assessed. The results show a significant correlation between proprioceptive deficits and emotional difficulties in this pediatric sample, with distinct proprioceptive impairment patterns according to the underlying neurological disorder. Children with CP showed significant emotional knowledge deficits, while children with ASD predominantly showed challenges in social responsiveness. These data thus suggest a differentiated impact of proprioception on emotional-social performance in neurodevelopmental disorders and highlight proprioception as a potential therapeutic target for balancing emotion regulation in children with neurodevelopmental conditions.

The role of a mindful movement-based program (Movimento Biologico) in health promotion: results of a pre-post intervention study

Introduction

Mindful movement is a comprehensive approach that integrates various bodily, emotional and cognitive aspects into physical activity, promoting overall well-being. This study assessed the impact of a mindful movement program, known as Movimento Biologico (MB), on participants psychological well-being (PWB), positive mental health (PMH), sense of coherence (SOC), and interoceptive awareness.

Methods

MB program was conducted for students attending the bachelor's degree in Kinesiology and Sport Sciences of University of Perugia over 8 weeks (from October 16 to November 27, 2022). Participants were requested to fill in four questionnaires before and after the MB program: (1) 18-item PWB scale; (2) 9-item PMH scale; (3) 13-item SOC scale; (4) 32-item scale for Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA). Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to assess changes, with significance set at p < 0.05.

Results

Thirty-eight students (mean age 21.2, 60.5% male) participated. Several MAIA subscales, including noticing (p = 0.003), attention management (p = 0.002), emotional awareness (p = 0.007), self-regulation (p < 0.001), body listening (p = 0.001), and trusting (p = 0.001), showed significant improvements. PMH increased significantly (p = 0.015), and there was a significant enhancement in the autonomy subscale of PWB (p = 0.036). SOC and overall PWB also improved, though not significantly.

Conclusion

The MB program significantly improved participants' positive mental health and interoceptive awareness. This likely resulted from better recognition and management of positive physiological sensations, a stronger link between physical sensations and emotions, enhanced confidence in one's body, and increased autonomy.

Body awareness disturbances in patients with low back pain: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

The pain-neuroscience literature has recently emphasized body perception or awareness. Impaired body perception results have been reported in many different chronic pain problems. Studies have reported that individuals with low back pain (LBP) also have body perception disturbances related to the lumbar spine.

OBJECTIVES

This review aimed to determine the evidence that body awareness alterations in individuals with LBP.

DESIGN

Systematic review.

METHOD

Studies were searched in PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Pedro databases up to January 2021. Each database was searched independently, according to a specific iteration research string. The protocol record of the systematic review was entered into the PROSPERO system.

RESULTS

Nine studies were included in this research. We found evidence to support more perceptual impairments in patients with LBP than healthy counterparts. In addition, the results of the studies showed an association between disrupted body awareness and pain severity, pain catastrophizing, and disability.

CONCLUSIONS

Body perception disturbances in LBP seem to be a promising path that needs to be further explored, with the ultimate goal of developing treatment contents targeting body awareness as a more comprehensive and valid evaluation and therapeutic method.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

The registration number was CRD42021235934.

Evaluations of dyadic synchrony: observers' traits influence estimation and enjoyment of synchrony in mirror-game movements

While evidence abounds that motor synchrony is a powerful form of 'social glue' for those involved, we have yet to understand how observers perceive motor synchrony: can observers estimate the degree of synchrony accurately? Is synchrony aesthetically pleasing? In two preregistered experiments (n = 161 each), we assess how accurately observers can estimate the degree of synchrony in dyads playing the mirror game, and how much observers enjoy watching these movements. We further assess whether accuracy and enjoyment are influenced by individual differences in self-reported embodied expertise (ability to reproduce movements, body awareness, body competence), psychosocial resources (extraversion, self-esteem), or social competencies (empathy, autistic traits), while objectively controlling for the degree of measured synchrony and complexity. The data revealed that observers' estimated synchrony with poor accuracy, showing a tendency to underestimate the level of synchrony. Accuracy for low synchrony improved with increasing body competence, while accuracy for high synchrony improved with increasing autistic traits. Observers' enjoyment of dyadic movements correlated positively with the degree of measured synchrony, the predictability of the movements, and the observer's empathy. Furthermore, very low enjoyment was associated with increased body perception. Our findings indicate that accuracy in perceiving synchrony is closely linked to embodiment, while aesthetic evaluations of action hinge on individual differences.

Can Yoga Boost Access to the Bodily and Emotional Self? Changes in Heart Rate Variability and in Affective Evaluation Before, During and After a Single Session of Yoga Exercise With and Without Instructions of Controlled Breathing and Mindful Body Awareness in Young Healthy Women

Exercise is indispensable for a healthy lifestyle. Yoga exercise can have positive effects on well-being and on cardiac autonomic activity making it an ideal intervention for improving mind-body interactions and resilience to physical and mental stressors. Emotions trigger especially strong bodily and affective-cognitive responses because of their social relevance for the self and their biological relevance of mobilizing the organism for action. This study investigates whether changes in emotion processing related to self-other referential processing and changes in cardiac autonomic activity, reflected by heart rate variability (HRV), occur immediately after already a single session of yoga exercise when yoga postures are practiced with or without breathing- and mindful body awareness instructions. Women, all university students (N = 34, final sample: n = 30, n = 25 naïve to yoga practice) were randomly assigned to two experimental groups who performed the same yoga exercises with or without controlled breathing and mindfulness instructions. Emotional, self-other referential processing, awareness of bodily signals and HRV indicators were investigated before and after the exercise using standardized experimental tasks, standardized questionnaires, and mobile recording devices. Exercising for 30 minutes changed cardiac activity significantly. HRV measures showed adaptability of cardiac activity during the exercise as well as during the affective task post- to pre-exercise. Exercising with breathing instructions and mindful body awareness had no superior effects on cardiac, particularly parasympathetic activity, compared to practicing the same movements without such explicit instructions. Self-referential processing did not change; however, participants were faster and more accurate in their affective judgments of emotional stimuli [regardless of their reference (self/other)], and showed better awareness of bodily signals after compared to before the exercise session. The results support immediate, adaptive effects of yoga exercise on cardiac and affective-cognitive processing in an all-female healthy sample. Therefore, yoga exercise could be recommended as a physical activity for boosting cardiac and emotional resilience in this target group.

The Resting-State Electroencephalogram Microstate Correlations With Empathy and Their Moderating Effect on the Relationship Between Empathy and Disgust

Humans have a natural ability to understand the emotions and feelings of others, whether one actually witnesses the situation of another, perceives it from a photograph, reads about it in a fiction book, or merely imagines it. This is the phenomenon of empathy, which requires us to mentally represent external information to experience the emotions of others. Studies have shown that individuals with high empathy have high anterior insula and adjacent frontal operculum activation when they are aware of negative emotions in others. As a negative emotion, disgust processing involves insula coupling. What are the neurophysiological characteristics for regulating the levels of empathy and disgust? To answer this question, we collected electroencephalogram microstates (EEG-ms) of 196 college students at rest and used the Disgust Scale and Interpersonal Reactivity Index. The results showed that: (1) there was a significant positive correlation between empathy and disgust sensitivity; (2) the empathy score and the intensity of transition possibility between EEG-ms C and D were significantly positively correlated; and (3) the connection strength between the transition possibility of EEG-ms C and D could adjust the relationship between the disgust sensitivity score and the empathy score. This study provides new neurophysiological characteristics for an understanding of the regulate relationship between empathy and disgust and provides a new perspective on emotion and attention.

The inside of me: interoceptive constraints on the concept of self in neuroscience and clinical psychology

Humans are unique in their ability to think about themselves and carry a more or less clear notion of who they are in their mind. Here we review recent evidence suggesting that the birth, maintenance, and loss of the abstract concept of 'self' is deeply tied to interoception, the sense of internal physiological signals. Interoception influences multiple facets of the self-concept, cutting across its material, social, moral, and agentive components. Overall, we argue that interoception contributes to the stability of the self-concept over time, unifying its layers and constraining the degree to which it is susceptible to external influences. Hence, the core features of the self-concept are those that correlate more with inner bodily states. We discuss the implications that this may have for theories of embodied cognition as well as for the understanding of psychiatric disorders in which the concept of self appears fragmented or loose. Finally, we formulate some empirical predictions that could be tested in future studies to shed further light on this emerging field.

Ethical Principles of Yoga Philosophy in Western Yoga Practitioners: Validation of the Yama/Niyama Questionnaire

Yoga is mainly known for its postures, while it has a rich philosophical/spiritual background which is often not well known. Particularly the ethical principles of Yoga, the Yamas and Niyamas, are of relevance for Western practitioners also. We thus intended to develop and validate an instrument that operationalizes the Yamas and Niyamas and performed a cross-sectional survey among 901 Yoga practitioners in Germany with standardized instruments. Principal component analysis of the 23-item Yama/Niyama Questionnaire (YaNiQ) pointed to 4 factors with good internal consistencies (Cronbach's α = 0.86, 0.82, 0.85, and 0.63). Best predictors of these factors were conscious presence ("mindfulness") and inner correspondence with Yoga practices. The YaNiQ seems to be suited for Western practitioners and could be a useful measure in future studies which intend to analyze the social and health-related attitudes and behaviors of Yoga practitioners. It can be assumed that the ethical principles are important contributors for lifestyle and behavior changes.

Effects of Yoga Asana Practice Approach on Types of Benefits Experienced

CONTEXT

Modern science and the classic text on hatha yoga, Hatha Yoga Pradipika, report physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and relational benefits of yoga practice. While all have specific suggestions for how to practice, little research has been done to ascertain whether specific practice approaches impact the benefits experienced by practitioners.

AIMS

Our aim was to relate the experience level of the practitioner, the context of practice approaches (time of day, duration of practice, frequency of practice, etc.), and experience level of the teacher, to the likelihood of reporting particular benefits of yoga.

METHODS

We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive survey of yoga practitioners across levels and styles of practice. Data were compiled from a large voluntary convenience sample (n = 2620) regarding respondents' methods of practice, yoga experience levels, and benefits experienced. Multiple logistic regression was used to identify approaches to yoga practice that positively predicted particular benefits.

RESULTS

Frequency of practice, either with or without a teacher, was a positive predictor of reporting nearly all benefits of yoga, with an increased likelihood of experiencing most benefits when the practitioner did yoga five or more days per week. Other aspects of practice approach, experience level of the practitioner, and the experience level of the teacher, had less effect on the benefits reported.

CONCLUSIONS

Practice frequency of at least 5 days per week will provide practitioners with the greatest amount of benefit across all categories of benefits. Other practice approaches can vary more widely without having a marked impact on most benefits experienced.

Yoga Therapy and Polyvagal Theory: The Convergence of Traditional Wisdom and Contemporary Neuroscience for Self-Regulation and Resilience

Yoga therapy is a newly emerging, self-regulating complementary and integrative healthcare (CIH) practice. It is growing in its professionalization, recognition and utilization with a demonstrated commitment to setting practice standards, educational and accreditation standards, and promoting research to support its efficacy for various populations and conditions. However, heterogeneity of practice, poor reporting standards, and lack of a broadly accepted understanding of the neurophysiological mechanisms involved in yoga therapy limits the structuring of testable hypotheses and clinical applications. Current proposed frameworks of yoga-based practices focus on the integration of bottom-up neurophysiological and top-down neurocognitive mechanisms. In addition, it has been proposed that phenomenology and first person ethical inquiry can provide a lens through which yoga therapy is viewed as a process that contributes towards eudaimonic well-being in the experience of pain, illness or disability. In this article we build on these frameworks, and propose a model of yoga therapy that converges with Polyvagal Theory (PVT). PVT links the evolution of the autonomic nervous system to the emergence of prosocial behaviors and posits that the neural platforms supporting social behavior are involved in maintaining health, growth and restoration. This explanatory model which connects neurophysiological patterns of autonomic regulation and expression of emotional and social behavior, is increasingly utilized as a framework for understanding human behavior, stress and illness. Specifically, we describe how PVT can be conceptualized as a neurophysiological counterpart to the yogic concept of the gunas, or qualities of nature. Similar to the neural platforms described in PVT, the gunas provide the foundation from which behavioral, emotional and physical attributes emerge. We describe how these two different yet analogous frameworks-one based in neurophysiology and the other in an ancient wisdom tradition-highlight yoga therapy's promotion of physical, mental and social wellbeing for self-regulation and resilience. This parallel between the neural platforms of PVT and the gunas of yoga is instrumental in creating a translational framework for yoga therapy to align with its philosophical foundations. Consequently, yoga therapy can operate as a distinct practice rather than fitting into an outside model for its utilization in research and clinical contexts.