Dialogue between Mind and Body: Toward an Interoceptive Embodied Cognition

Jing ZHANG CHEN Wei

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2021, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (1) : 30-36.

PDF(357 KB)
PDF(357 KB)
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2021, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (1) : 30-36.

Dialogue between Mind and Body: Toward an Interoceptive Embodied Cognition

  • Jing ZHANG1,2,CHEN Wei3
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Abstract

The concept of embodied cognition attempts to emphasize that the mind is rooted in the body, and physical experience has important influences on cognitive processes. However, how is the dialogue between mind and body going on? How and through what channels does the body affect mind? In regard to such questions mentioned above, what we knew is still little. Traditional research of embodied cognition encounters not only the repeatability crisis, but also a reliability problem on the conclusion that changing physical states affect advanced cognition. In addition to performing more studies to explore the relationships between physical states and cognitive results, some studies have begun to turn their attention to interoception. The broad sense of interoception includes proprioception and visceroception. The former mainly refers to signals from skin, muscle and skeleton, while the latter refers to signals from internal organs. During actual research, due to operational and ethical reasons, the accuracy of heartbeat perception is one of the most commonly used indicators of an individual’s interoceptive sensitivity. In recent years, more and more evidence has shown that interoception is closely related to bodily-self representation, embodied emotion, as well as social cognition. The study of interoception and bodily-self representation is one of the main aspects of the interoception diversion in embodied cognition. It is well known that rubber hand illusion (RHI) is an experiment in which synchronic visual and tactile stimulations can give rise to a body part ownership illusion. Based on the paradigm of rubber hand illusion, many studies revealed there is a positive correlation between the interoceptive accuracy and the stability of bodily-self representation, which seems to limit the effect of exteroception signals on body perception. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that if the exteroception model of self emphasizes the plasticity of body perception, the interoception model seems to serve the stability of the body and its psychological representation of external changes. Another important issue of concern is the study of interoception and embodied emotions. Traditional embodied cognition holds the idea that there is a direct relationship between body states and emotions, thus emotional understanding involves embodied simulation. However, recent studies on interoception and embodied emotions have shown that body signals are converted into experiences and then fed into the cognitive system may be more reasonable than the traditional hypothesis that body signals are directly related to the cognitive system. In a word, it is likely that interoception plays an important regulatory role in our physical processing and advanced cognitive processes. If we consider the research from disembodied cognition to embodied cognition as a re-established of body’s core position in self related debate, then the interoception diversion of embodied cognition is a process from fragmented understanding to comprehensive understanding of self. The interoception diversion in the research of embodied cognition may become a critical driving force to lead embodied cognition out of the current dilemma, and promote the further development of embodied cognition. However, more in-depth and detailed discussions about the relationship between body and mind depend on more interoception researches. First of all, research on the relationship between interoception and body representation needs to be further explored. Secondly, it is necessary to expand the potential research objects of interoception and embodiment research. Last but not least, it is important to enrich the coverage of research related to interoception and embodied cognition.

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Jing ZHANG CHEN Wei. Dialogue between Mind and Body: Toward an Interoceptive Embodied Cognition[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2021, 44(1): 30-36
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