Periodic Reporting for period 1 - InteroceptionAction (Unraveling the role of interoceptive abilities in aesthetic appreciation of movement)
Período documentado: 2022-09-01 hasta 2024-08-31
Our bodies can perform goal-directed and object-directed actions, such as tying one’s shoes or driving a car, as well as more athletic and artistic movements like dance. Movement can convey meanings and emotions that are fundamental to social interaction and communication while also being tied to experiences of pleasure. However, our bodies also regulate a range of internal movements and rhythmic processes essential for survival, such as the cardiac and breathing cycles. Although internal and external movements stem from the same body, their relationship and mutual influence on aesthetic evaluation remain poorly understood.
Investigating the relationship between our awareness of these internal bodily signals (i.e. interoception) and the perception and evaluation of movement could provide significant insights into how individuals engage with and make sense of the external world.
The InteroceptionAction project was centered around four main objectives:
- Objective 1: Establish the foundations for knowledge transfer with the research group at Macquarie University (Australia) through behavioral and physiological (e.g. electrocardiography, ECG) studies that assess the potential link between interoception and the emotional and aesthetic evaluation of body and movement.
- Objective 2: Investigate the time courses and neural correlates of the link between interoception and body/movement evaluation using magnetoencephalography (MEG).
- Objective 3: Examine the effects of intensive short-term training on enhancing participants’ interoceptive abilities and the subsequent impact on their evaluation of body and movement through functional neuroimaging (fMRI).
- Objective 4: Facilitate knowledge transfer with the research group at Sapienza University of Rome (Italy) and disseminate results.
Investigating the relationship between our awareness of these internal bodily signals (i.e. interoception) and the perception and evaluation of movement could provide significant insights into how individuals engage with and make sense of the external world.
The InteroceptionAction project was centered around four main objectives:
- Objective 1: Establish the foundations for knowledge transfer with the research group at Macquarie University (Australia) through behavioral and physiological (e.g. electrocardiography, ECG) studies that assess the potential link between interoception and the emotional and aesthetic evaluation of body and movement.
- Objective 2: Investigate the time courses and neural correlates of the link between interoception and body/movement evaluation using magnetoencephalography (MEG).
- Objective 3: Examine the effects of intensive short-term training on enhancing participants’ interoceptive abilities and the subsequent impact on their evaluation of body and movement through functional neuroimaging (fMRI).
- Objective 4: Facilitate knowledge transfer with the research group at Sapienza University of Rome (Italy) and disseminate results.
During the first 24 months of the project, we conducted eight studies involving approximately 320 participants. We utilized a combination of neuroscientific methods, including behavioral, electrophysiological (ECG, MEG), and neuroimaging (fMRI) measurements. One of the main achievements was the design of a MEG-compatible closed-loop system that allowed modulation of stimulus presentation on a computer screen in two ways: images could be time-locked to specific phases of a participant’s heart cycle, and the playback speed of videos could be modulated in real time based on a participant’s heart rate.
In a series of behavioral and physiological (ECG) investigations, we synchronized the presentation of images depicting emotional body postures and more complex dance postures during both ventricular systole and diastole using the R-peak of a participant’s cardiac cycle. Our findings indicate that incongruence between exteroceptive (visual) and interoceptive (cardiac) information interferes with emotional evaluations of these body postures. Additionally, the R-peak was used to compute a participant’s heart rate in real time, synchronizing this heart rate with the speed of point-light animations depicting biological and scrambled motion during a forced-choice task. In this task, participants chose between two videos: one was always faster than the other, with the slower video synchronized with their heart rate 50% of the time and the faster video synchronized the other 50% of the time. Evidence suggests that, despite a general preference for faster movements, participants favored the synchronized version of biological motion when it was presented upright, as opposed to upside down.
All studies included measures of cardiac interoceptive accuracy (e.g. heartbeat counting task), a series of psychological questionnaires, and demographic information to leverage the individual variability of participants in terms of gender, expertise in dance and meditation, sociocultural differences, education, and cognitive/empathic/interoceptive traits.
Functional neuroimaging (fMRI) evidence revealed that observing complex movements, such as dance, not only activates brain areas involved in visual and sensorimotor processing (e.g. the action observation network, AON) but also engages regions associated with interoceptive processing (i.e. the insular cortex) and cognitive demand (e.g. the default mode network, DMN), as a function of the observers’ acquired visuomotor expertise.
Our MEG study is ongoing and will provide critical insights into the time courses of the interplay between the AON, interoceptive network, and DMN during movement observation, depending on the interoceptive capabilities of the observers. Additionally, the project’s objectives and results have been presented at international conferences and disseminated to a broader non-academic audience (i.e. professional dancers) through the organization of conferences and workshops, participation in a TEDx event, and the establishment of international collaborations and partnerships.
In a series of behavioral and physiological (ECG) investigations, we synchronized the presentation of images depicting emotional body postures and more complex dance postures during both ventricular systole and diastole using the R-peak of a participant’s cardiac cycle. Our findings indicate that incongruence between exteroceptive (visual) and interoceptive (cardiac) information interferes with emotional evaluations of these body postures. Additionally, the R-peak was used to compute a participant’s heart rate in real time, synchronizing this heart rate with the speed of point-light animations depicting biological and scrambled motion during a forced-choice task. In this task, participants chose between two videos: one was always faster than the other, with the slower video synchronized with their heart rate 50% of the time and the faster video synchronized the other 50% of the time. Evidence suggests that, despite a general preference for faster movements, participants favored the synchronized version of biological motion when it was presented upright, as opposed to upside down.
All studies included measures of cardiac interoceptive accuracy (e.g. heartbeat counting task), a series of psychological questionnaires, and demographic information to leverage the individual variability of participants in terms of gender, expertise in dance and meditation, sociocultural differences, education, and cognitive/empathic/interoceptive traits.
Functional neuroimaging (fMRI) evidence revealed that observing complex movements, such as dance, not only activates brain areas involved in visual and sensorimotor processing (e.g. the action observation network, AON) but also engages regions associated with interoceptive processing (i.e. the insular cortex) and cognitive demand (e.g. the default mode network, DMN), as a function of the observers’ acquired visuomotor expertise.
Our MEG study is ongoing and will provide critical insights into the time courses of the interplay between the AON, interoceptive network, and DMN during movement observation, depending on the interoceptive capabilities of the observers. Additionally, the project’s objectives and results have been presented at international conferences and disseminated to a broader non-academic audience (i.e. professional dancers) through the organization of conferences and workshops, participation in a TEDx event, and the establishment of international collaborations and partnerships.
The InteroceptionAction project has been significantly expanding our understanding of how internal bodily signals, such as our cardiac activity, and our awareness of them (i.e. interoception), influence the brain’s perception and evaluation of human body and movement. Evidence from the first phase of the project suggests a link between the configurational visual processing of upright (vs upside-down) body and movement and both cardiac activity and interoceptive accuracy. Upon project completion, and with integrated findings from the MEG study and the interoceptive training procedures currently underway, we will be able to refine theoretical of movement aesthetic evaluation. This updated framework will incorporate the neural systems underlying interoceptive capability, enhancing our understanding of the interactions between the visual, sensorimotor, and reward systems already identified in the literature. These insights into the complex phenomenon of body-brain interaction are expected to impact the performing arts community by providing choreographers, performers, and teachers with tools to tailor their performances and trainings, thereby modulating audience engagement during classes and performances. Furthermore, translating this knowledge into a clinical framework will be fundamental for implementing future studies involving neuroatypical populations that exhibit an imbalance between interoceptive and exteroceptive processing.