scholarly journals The body and cognition: The relation between body representations and higher level cognitive and social processes

Cortex ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 104 ◽  
pp. 133-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Dijkerman ◽  
Bigna Lenggenhager
Keyword(s):  
Social Processes ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Representations

scholarly journals Experimentally induced pain does not influence updating of peripersonal space and body representations following tool-use

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Axel Davies Vittersø ◽  
Monika Halicka ◽  
Gavin Buckingham ◽  
Michael J Proulx ◽  
Mark Wilson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Experimental Pain ◽  
Peripersonal Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Representations ◽  
Tactile Target ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Chronic Pain Conditions ◽  
Crossmodal Congruency

Representations of the body and peripersonal space can be distorted for people with some chronic pain conditions. Experimental pain induction can give rise to similar, but transient distortions in healthy individuals. However, spatial and bodily representations are dynamic, and constantly update as we interact with objects in our environment. It is unclear whether induced pain disrupts the mechanisms involved in updating these representations. In the present study, we sought to investigate the effect of induced pain on the updating of peripersonal space and body representations during and following tool-use. We compared performance under three conditions (pain, active placebo, neutral) on a visuotactile crossmodal congruency task and a tactile distance judgement task to measure updating of peripersonal space and body representations, respectively. We induced pain by applying 1% capsaicin cream to the arm, and for placebo we used a gel that induced non-painful warming. Consistent with previous findings, the difference in crossmodal interference from visual distractors in the same compared to opposite visual field to the tactile target was less when tools were crossed than uncrossed. This suggests an extension of peripersonal space to incorporate the tips of the tools. Also consistent with previous findings, estimates of the felt distance between two points (tactile distance judgements) decreased after active tool-use. In contrast to our predictions, however, we found no evidence that pain interfered with performance on either task when compared to the control conditions. This suggests that the updating of peripersonal space and body representations is not disrupted by induced pain. Therefore, acute pain does not account for the distorted representations of the body and peripersonal space that can endure in people with chronic pain conditions.

3. Educating bodies

2016 ◽  
pp. 42-59
Author(s):  
Chris Shilling
Keyword(s):  
Social Processes ◽  
The Body ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Educational Processes ◽  
The Social

The matter of education raises broader issues about how profit or value is extracted from or added to embodied subjects. Educational institutions seek to structure and direct people’s embodied capacities for experiencing, reflecting on, and engaging with the social, physical, and symbolic environments in which they live. The results of these educational processes can also enhance or constrain people’s ability to add value to their own lives as well as to those of others. ‘Educating bodies’ considers the mechanisms involved in body pedagogics, described by Marcel Mauss as ‘techniques of the body’, comprising biological, physiological, and social processes, as well as John Dewey’s discussion of anoetic and noetic knowledge.

scholarly journals Ecologizing Social Psychology: The Physical Environment as a Necessary Constituent of Social Processes

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin R. Meagher
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
The Body ◽  
Childhood Development ◽  
Regulatory Processes ◽  
Recent Trends

Recent trends in social psychology point to increased interest in extending current theories by better incorporating the body (e.g., embodied cognition) and the broader interpersonal context (e.g., situations). However, despite being a critical component in early social theorizing, the physical environment remains in large part underdeveloped in most research programs. In this article, I outline an ecological framework for understanding the person–environment relationship. After introducing this perspective, I describe how this approach helps reveal the critical role played by the physical environment in a variety of social processes, including childhood development, interpersonal relationships, and social identity. Finally, I review a topic in environmental psychology that has received little attention among social psychologists: territories. I provide an ecological perspective on how the design, use, and personalization of this type of environment guide and constrain regulatory processes involving social behavior, identity expression, and emotional experience.

To Dress or Not to Dress: Body Representations of the Ethnic Minorities on China's Southwestern Frontiers

Inner Asia ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-203 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
The Body ◽  
Semiotic System ◽  
Body Representations ◽  
Late Qing ◽  
Representation Form ◽  
System Functioning ◽  
Intellectual Elites

AbstractThis paper aims to draw attention to the ways in which China's political authorities and intellectual elites have been using 'dress' either to imperialise or to nationalise the ethnic minorities of Southwestern frontiers since the late qing. it argues that the intensely politicised nature of costumed body and embodied dress of the Southwestern minorities is a stage for debates about civilisation, diversity, Darwinist evolution and the uniqueness of China's modernity. it suggests that the body of the Southwestern ethnic and the dress as its vestimentary representation form a mutually reinforcing semiotic system, functioning as a visual means to shape China's power structure.

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

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

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

scholarly journals Implicit and Explicit Body Representations

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Longo
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Information ◽  
Body Representation ◽  
Position Sense ◽  
The Body ◽  
Size Perception ◽  
Somatosensory Processing ◽  
Body Representations ◽  
Size And Shape ◽  
Tactile Localization ◽  
Somatosensory Information

Several forms of perception require that sensory information be referenced to representations of the size and shape of the body. This requirement is especially acute in somatosensation in which the main receptor surface (i.e., the skin) is itself coextensive with the body. This paper reviews recent research investigating the body representations underlying somatosensory information processing, including abilities such as tactile localization, tactile size perception, and position sense. These representations show remarkably large and stereotyped distortions of represented body size and shape. Intriguingly, these distortions appear to mirror distortions characteristic of somatosensory maps, though in attenuated form. In contrast, when asked to make overt judgments about perceived body form, participants are generally quite accurate. This pattern of results suggests that higher-level somatosensory processing relies on a class of implicit body representation, distinct from the conscious body image. I discuss the implications of these results for understanding the nature of body representation and the factors that influence it.

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