Authors:

DUNN, B.D. & DALGLEISH, T.

Reference:

Year of publication:

2009

CBU number:

7040

Abstract:

There is a long tradition arguing that feedback from the body can influence emotional and cognitive function. The James Lange theory (James, 1884) controversially asserted that perception of changes in the body “as they occur is the emotion”. More recently, the somatic marker hypothesis (Damasio, 1994) proposes that emotional biasing signals arising from the body regulate intuitive decision-making. 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, some therapeutic interventions (e.g. mindfulness based cognitive therapy) could in part act by regulating this somatic feedback system. Surprisingly, this possibility has received relatively little attention in the CBT literature to date. This talk will discuss recent experiments run in our laboratory investigating whether alterations in activity in the body and how accurately this is perceived (interoception) influence cognitive-affective processes in healthy and mood disordered individuals. Further, data exploring whether mindfulness in parts works by altering interoceptive accuracy will be shared and the clinical implications of these findings discussed.