Neurophilosophy

Exercising so hard that a person enters "the zone" is an altered state of consciousness marked by laser focus, a sense of timelessness, and peace. The state was first attributed to endorphin production in the brain and later by the concept of "flow" in which a person enters a meditative, trance-like state, but now there comes a new theory--Transient Hypofrontality--which offers the promise of explaining what actually happens in the brain.

Embodiment is not a theory, but a lived reality of everyday life. You would not be here without a body in contradiction to the faulty teachings of Descartes. Embodied consciousness is extremely complex with a variety of aspects and ultimately it is a relationship between the bodymind and itself and the outside world. It is ground zero for existence.

As a very learned man once said, "There is nothing so practical as a good theory." I've been collecting theories in somatic psychology, body image, and embodiment for a while now and am offering a brief review of five key theories regarding embodiment. These theories offer practitioners and the layperson guides to better understand body image health and body image disturbance.

There has been a lot of research on how the brain recognizes faces and very little on how it identifies bodies. A new study using advanced fMRI technology has found a network of brain areas that identify a human body as being human and not that of an animal.

Up until this time, there have been 11 officially recognized organ systems in the body and anyone who has ever taken an anatomy class was made familiar with all them in detail. This situation may now be changing with the possible addition of a 12th system: the interstitium. This is an extensive, continuous layer of fluid-filled space that runs through all the connective tissues of the body. It was discovered in 2018 by accident using a new method of cell staining. This new “organ” may be the basis behind the efficacy of various complimentary and alternative therapies.

Most people tend to think of body awareness as a homogeneous experiential state, but it really is not. It is much more nuanced and differentiated. Awareness in general consists of exteroception and interoception. Body awareness then is a very complex phenomenon even though it feels like a simple, immediate, and wholly integrated experience. Scientific studies of awareness have discovered that body awareness has three facets: interoceptive accuracy, sensibility, and degree of awareness itself.

If there is one term used the most often in bodywork and somatic clinical psychology, it has to be body awareness. But, what does the term really mean? It most likely means different things to different somatic professionals. It all depends on the therapeutic philosophy and goals and so not all meanings are the same across all disciplines. A focus group of somatic therapists from a variety of modalities discussed the issue and their answers were both insightful and intriguing.

Direct gaze serves a variety of function in human life. It is the basis for social communication and is impaired in neuropsychological conditions such as schizophrenia and autism. Five types of effects have been catalogued: (1) attention capture, (2) enhancement of self-awareness, (3) memory enhancement, (4) support of prosocial behaviors, and (5) positive evaluations of others.

The flow of time is measured by our inner experience. Subjective time is not the same as physical time as the former does not pass as a steady flow, but contracts and elongates. Positive and negative emotions are especially influential on the experience of time passing. Emotionally-painful states drive a person’s attention away from their meaningful thoughts and actions toward the awareness of passing time. People in fear or anxiety overestimate the duration of time. Vice versa for positive emotional and physiological states. The body has several different “clocks” for running cycles of biological rhythms. One rhythm that helps us chart time is own emotional body experiences. The experience of time is ultimately a body sense housed in the insula. Time flows out of us or through us with each breath and heartbeat.