Ambron, E. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2019

Apparent increase in lip size is linked to tactile discrimination improvement

Magnified vision of ones body part has been shown to improve tactile acuity. We used an anesthetic cream (AC) to explore this effect. In Experiment 1, application of AC caused an increase in perceived lip size. As perceived lip size increased, tactile discrimination (as assessed by two-point discrimination) improved. In Experiment 2, we replicated these results in a larger sample and showed that these effects are not observed without AC. Tactile discrimination was better and improved as a function of lip size with AC, while performance remained consistent without AC. In Experiment 3, we showed that the increase in perceived lip size occurred only with the application of AC, but not with moisturizing cream. The application of either cream induced an improvement in two-point discrimination, but this improvement was modulated by perceived lip size only for AC. Magnification effects are mediated by malleable, experience-dependent representations of the human body.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Bodily sensations in social scenarios: Where in the body?

Bodily states are fundamental to emotions emergence and are believed to constitute the first step in the chain of events that culminate in emotional awareness. Recent works have given fresh support to this view by showing that distinct topographical maps can be derived to describe how basic and more complex emotions are represented in the body. However, it is still unclear whether these bodily maps can also extend to emotions experienced specifically within social interactions and how these representations relate to basic emotions. To address this issue, we used the emBODY tool to obtain high-resolution bodily maps that represent the body activation and deactivation experienced by healthy participants in social scenarios depicting establishment or loss of social bonds. We show that clear patterns of activation/deactivation across the body emerge depending on the valence and on the characteristics of the single social scenarios, but also a common activation of head, chest and limbs across scenarios. Furthermore, we showed that maps related to complex social scenarios are strongly correlated with bodily states experienced in basic emotions, suggesting that the patterns of body activation/deactivation found for social scenarios might represent a combination of different basic emotions these experiences elicit. Our data tackle conscious emotional experiences and show for the first time how painful social events are felt on the body, providing findings that complement verbal reports and neuroimaging data on social rejection. Furthermore, they show that bodily feelings related to complex social scenarios, despite referring to unified independent emotional states, are also related to bodily correlates of basic emotions.

neuroscience↗