Authors:

DUNN, B.D., DALGLEISH, T., Morgan, R., Galton H., Oliver, C., Vyas, N. & Meyer, M.

Reference:

Year of publication:

2007

CBU number:

6611

Abstract:

There is a long tradition arguing that feedback from the body can influence emotional and cognitive function. The James Lange theory (James, 1884) famously and controversially proposed that perception of changes in the body “as they occur is the emotion”. More recently, the somatic marker hypothesis (Damasio, 1994) suggested that emotional biasing signals arising from the body regulate decision-making in situations of uncertainty and complexity. Given the prevalence of somatic symptoms in psychopathology it is plausible that disturbances of these bodily feedback systems might be involved in the onset and maintenance of conditions such as depression and anxiety. Moreover, a range of therapeutic interventions could in part act by changing the relationship to the body (e.g. mindfulness based approaches). Surprisingly, this possibility has received relatively little attention in the CBT literature to date. This talk will present the results of recent experiments run in our laboratory investigating whether alterations in activity in the body and how accurately this is perceived (interoception) influence emotional processing and decision-making in healthy and depressed individuals. Further, data from preliminary investigations of whether mindfulness in parts works by increasing interoceptive accuracy will be shared and the clinical implications of these findings discussed.