| dc.description.abstract | Humans relate to their spatial environment according to their interpretation of physiological signals (e.g., hunger, temperature, gastrointestinal symptoms). Therefore, changes inside the body operate to serve ‘one’s purposes’ and promote adaptive functioning. Specifically, the ability to identify these internal cues, access and interpret our affective experience in a nuanced manner, and then process these emotions in the context of our subjective bodily experience provides consideration for the brain-body phenomena across the contexts of our external, physiological, and social environments. Therefore, the broad goal of this dissertation was to investigate how emotion is felt in the body (with consideration toward related socio-emotional traits). Two studies were devised to assess the relationship between social anxiety, interoception, and embodiment.
In Study 1, we investigated individuals’ ability to detect and respond to changes in the body by assessing the relationship between interoception and trait social anxiety. A multi-method, multi-dimensional approach to examining interoception was employed, with the
goal of providing a more complete view of internal processes and addressing the dissociable impact that these different measures provide. Our results indicated a global deficit of interoceptive ability in those with trait social anxiety when compared to a subthreshold group (i.e., no clinically significant symptomology). In Study 2, we further explored how emotions are formulated, accessed, and experienced through bodily channels by investigating embodiment in individuals with trait social anxiety. This required the inclusion of two conditions—one categorical task assessing for the bodily sensations experienced when viewing selected affective imagery (2A), and one free response task assessing for the bodily sensations of twelve different emotions (2B). We confirmed the link between trait social anxiety and emotional embodiment, as those with trait social anxiety showed greater overall activation across all emotions, in addition to endorsing more sensations/feelings in the core region of the body.
Together, these findings suggest the dissociable impact of trait social anxiety on interoceptive sensibility, body awareness, and the way emotions are experienced and embodied. Therefore, interoception-based interventions may provide good clinical utility, by assisting individuals in variously enhancing or reducing specific interoceptive processes based on their level of bodily awareness and self-regulation. | |
