Taking time to feel our body: Steady increases in heartbeat perception accuracy and decreases in alexithymia over 9 months of contemplative mental training
Taking time to feel our body: Steady increases in heartbeat perception accuracy and decreases in alexithymia over 9 months of contemplative mental training
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DOI：
10.1111/psyp.12790
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发表时间：
2017-03-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Singer, Tania
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bornemann, Boris;Singer, Tania
准确感知身体信号的能力已被证明对身心健康以及理解一个人的情绪非常重要。尽管这种技能的重要性，通常以心跳感知准确性（HBPa）为指标，但对其可塑性知之甚少。在这里，我们调查了是否有意识的心理练习可以增加HBPa。在一项为期9个月的心理训练研究的背景下，资源项目，两个匹配的队列（n=77和n=79）进行了3个月的持续时间，针对注意力和内感受能力（存在模块），社会情感（情感模块），社会认知（视角模块）的能力的培训模块。第三个队列（n=78）进行了3个月的实践（情感模块）和复检对照组（n=84）没有进行任何培训。在每个训练模块之前和之后用心跳跟踪任务测量HBPa。情绪意识采用多伦多述情障碍量表（TAS）测量。筛选时TAS评分>60的受试者被排除。HBPa被发现在训练过程中稳步增加，在6个月（Cohen的d= 0.173）和9个月（d= 0.273）的心理训练后出现了显着和小到中等大小的影响。HBPa的变化伴随着情绪意识的变化，并可预测情绪意识的变化。我们的研究结果表明，HBPa确实可以通过强化练习来训练。这种效果需要比典型的正念课程的8周更长的时间才能达到有意义的程度。这些内感受准确性的增加和情感意识的相关改善，为通过增强性心理训练改善身心健康提供了机会。
The ability to accurately perceive signals from the body has been shown to be important for physical and psychological health as well as understanding one's emotions. Despite the importance of this skill, often indexed by heartbeat perception accuracy (HBPa), little is known about its malleability. Here, we investigated whether contemplative mental practice can increase HBPa. In the context of a 9-month mental training study, the ReSource Project, two matched cohorts (n=77 and n=79) underwent three training modules of 3 months' duration that targeted attentional and interoceptive abilities (Presence module), socio-affective (Affect module), and socio-cognitive (Perspective module) abilities. A third cohort (n=78) underwent 3 months of practice (Affect module) and a retest control group (n=84) did not undergo any training. HBPa was measured with a heartbeat tracking task before and after each training module. Emotional awareness was measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS). Participants with TAS scores>60 at screening were excluded. HBPa was found to increase steadily over the training, with significant and small- to medium-sized effects emerging after 6 months (Cohen's d=.173) and 9 months (d=.273) of mental training. Changes in HBPa were concomitant with and predictive of changes in emotional awareness. Our results suggest that HBPa can indeed be trained through intensive contemplative practice. The effect takes longer than the 8 weeks of typical mindfulness courses to reach meaningful magnitude. These increments in interoceptive accuracy and the related improvements in emotional awareness point to opportunities for improving physical and psychological health through contemplative mental training.