Body/Mind Dynamics of Expression

BibSyn 10/01/14 Toussaint Séverine Paranyushkin Dmitri

IntroductionFinding new approaches to therapy through modulation of interacting dynamic processes in the body-mind-environment system.

Expression: continuously produced, consciously or not. Base of communication. !• What happens between body, mind and environment is a

set of complex dynamics occurring at different levels.

Neural dynamics

Body dynamics

Mind

Expression of behaviors

Changes

Emotional states

Introduction

• Mechanisms which affect chaotic itinerancy of the body and mental state?

• Links between mental disorders and creativity? !

Appeals to different scientific fields (neurophysiolgy, ethology, complex system, phylosophy, psychology…)

Questions

1. How can body-mind-environment be studied as a dynamical system and what are the

advantages of this approach?

Questions

2. What are the qualities and properties of those dynamic processes that occur in the

body-mind-environment?

Questions

3. How are disturbances in the dynamics of body-mind-environment linked to various mental

disorders, altered states, emotional distress, etc.

Questions

4. Could body-mind-environment dynamics be modulated for therapeutical purposes?

BibSyn Text Graph

• We found 15 main articles relevant to the subject and created a text network visualisation of them in order to have a visual representation of the topics covered and the connections between them.

Main Topics

• Studying evolution of symptoms and individual behavior in time; !

• Studying evolution and dynamics of emotional responses in time; !

• Brain wave oscillations, neural activity; !

• Informaiton processing; !

• Finding patterns of interactions between oscillatory activities within the body-mind-environment system;

BibSyn Concept Graph

• We retrieved the most relevant concepts for our questions from 15 articles. Using KnowNodes we created a graph of these concepts and their relationships (describing a potential or existing interactions between them).

Main Topics

• Disturbances in chaotic variability of body movements and behavioral changes is related to mental disorders; !

• Inhibition of certain frequency ranges and promotion of others may lead to decoupling (e.g. MDMA, Ketamine effects); !

• Art therapy and other creative occupations may stimulate interactions between different regions of oscillatory activity;

Body-Mind-Environment

Body-Mind-Environment

• Cognition and sensorimotor activity extend beyond just the neural assemblies of the brain – into the body and the environment; !• The brain, spinal cord and the organs of the body are connected through oscillatory links;

Thompson & Varela 2001; Basar 2008;

Body-Mind-Environment

• Rhythmic hormonal oscillations inside the body can drive brain activity which can affect emotion recognition.

Reference Parer from Marta;

Body-Mind-Environment

Kaliman et al 2014. Rapid changes in histone deacetylases and inflammatory gene expression in expert meditators. Psychoneuroendocrinology 40, 96-107.

• Evidence of specific molecular changes in the body following a period of intensive mindfulness practice.

The mental state (perception of your mind) can affect gene’s activity.

Body-Mind-Environment

• Distinct processes interact to produce complex global dynamics with chaotic properties; !

• Therefore, nonlinear dynamics and network theory could be used to study cognition and perception;

Bystritsky et al 2012; Rabinovich 2010;

Properties of Dynamics

Properties of Dynamics

• Involuntary body movements in the state of cognitive are characteristic of pink noise: meaning that there was a correlation between amplitudes and frequencies.

• In the state of anxiety, there was a whitening of the signal (less correlation between the amplitude and frequencies = decoupling)

D’Mello et al 2011; Yamada 1995; !

D’Mello et al 2011; !

Properties of dynamics

Emotions • Subjective experience characterized by

psychophysiological expressions, biological reactions and mental states.

!• Hormonal influence (dopamine, noradrenaline, serotonin, oxytocin, cortisol and

GABA) !

• Neural circuit

James, W. (1884). What is an Emotion? Mind, 9: 188–205

Myers, D. G. (2004) Theories of Emotion. Psychology:

Seventh Edition, New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Broca 1878; Papez 1937; MacLean 1952.

Properties of dynamicsExpression of Emotions • Observable verbal and nonverbal behaviors that

communicate an internal emotional or affective state.

!!

• Consensus: each functioning human experience and express emotions with his voice, face and body.

Darwin, Charles (1872). The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.

Properties of dynamicsHow many emotions do we have?

Ekman 1992

Ekman’s list of Basic Emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and surprise

Facial expression ! Communication channel

!!! Ekman’s Facial Action Coding System (FACS)

!Ekman 1999

Properties of Dynamics

Nummenmaaa et al (2013). Bodily maps of emotions. PNAS

Body expression of emotions

Lack of functional imaging studies !!New approache: to map emotions onto the regions of human body, from subjective level.

Properties of Dynamics

Nummenmaaa et al (2013). Bodily maps of emotions. PNAS

Body expression of emotions Computer-based topographical self-reported method (emBODY)

Nummenmaaa et al (2013). Bodily maps of emotions. PNAS

Properties of dynamics

Therapy: Better understand mood disorders? !Nervertheless, the individual differences in expression of emotions have to be taken into account.

Nummenmaaa et al (2013). Bodily maps of emotions. PNAS

Deviations

Deviations

• Mood shifting patterns that are deviating from a mix of chaotic itinerancy and circadian rhythms are associated with depression and panic attacks.

Katerndahl et al 2007;

Dilignieres et al 2003;

Deviations

Stereotypy Behaviour pattern that is repetitive, invariant and has no obvious goal or function (Fox 1965; Hutt & Hutt 1970; Odberg 1978; Wiepkema et al. 1983).

!Seem to be restricted to mentally ill or handicapped humans, subjects taken stimulant drugs and captive animals. !

•In humans: neurological troubles, brain damages •In animals: sub-optimal environment Functional Hypotheses: discharge tension, stress, frustration (Nind & Kellett 2002).

Mason, G. J. 1991. Stereotypies: a critical review. Animal Behaviour 41:1015-1037.

Deviations

Stereotypies !Abnormal behavior: Away from the norm (Fraser & Broom 1990) Lacking in function (Fraser 1968) Causing harm to the individual (Schmidt

1982)

Mason, G. J. 1991. Stereotypies: a critical review. Animal Behaviour 41:1015-1037.

Deviations

• Disturbances in small-world functional brain network structure is associated with schizophrenia.

Micheloyannis et al 2006;

Micheloyannis et al 2006;

Deviations

• A decrease of low and medium frequency neural activity, and an increase of high frequency neural activity as an effect of MDMA.

Frei et al 2001;

Frei et al 2001;

Deviations• Autism and neural networks

Keown et al. 2013

Hypotheses about causes of autism: lack of connectivity

Highest levels of connectivity = largest deficits in social functioning

Deviations• Autism and neural networks

Keown et al. 2013

Therapy? Aid to diagnosis Epilepsy drugs might be useful to treat autism

Propositions

Propositions

• Mood variability monitoring (apps that suggest to change activity);

Propositions

• Movement practices that induce chaotic patterns in motion;

Thank you