Papers by Camila Valenzuela-Moguillansky
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2013
Despite the fact that the rubber hand illusion (RHI) is an experimental paradigm that has been wi... more Despite the fact that the rubber hand illusion (RHI) is an experimental paradigm that has been widely used in the last 14 years to investigate different aspects of the sense of bodily self, very few studies have sought to investigate the subjective nature of the experience that the RHI evokes. The present study investigates the phenomenology of the RHI through a specific elicitation method. More particularly, this study aims at assessing whether the conditions usually used as control in the RHI have an impact in the sense of body ownership and at determining whether there are different stages in the emergence of the illusion. The results indicate that far from being "all or nothing," the illusion induced by the RHI protocol involves nuances in the type of perceptual changes that it creates. These perceptual changes affect not only the participants' perception of the rubber hand but also the perception of their real hand. In addition, perceptual effects may vary greatly between participants and, importantly, they evolve over time.
Revista chilena de neuropsicología, Jan 21, 2012
Adaptive Behavior, 2022
In recent decades, empirical study of experience has been installed as a relevant and necessary e... more In recent decades, empirical study of experience has been installed as a relevant and necessary element in researching cognitive phenomena. However, its incorporation into cognitive science has been largely done by following an objectivist frame of reference, without reconsidering the practices and standards involved in the process of research and the interpretation and validation of the results. This has given rise to a number of issues that reveal inconsistencies in the understanding and treatment of some crucial aspects of first-person research. In this article, we will outline a research direction aiming at contributing to the establishment of a framework for the study of experience that addresses these inconsistencies. Specifically, we will identify some challenges facing the study of experience—in particular those linked to the understanding of memory, expression and description, and intersubjectivity in exploring experience—and propose to reframe them under the epistemologica...
Objective: The aim of the present study was to explore the bodily experience of fibromyalgia pati... more Objective: The aim of the present study was to explore the bodily experience of fibromyalgia patients' recovery process, focusing on the changes that, from the patients' perspective, were significant in the progression towards health. Methods: Eight women who had recovered from fibromyalgia participated in the study. Data was gathered and analyzed using qualitative, phenomenological and arts-based methods, combining different levels of description: a narrative level using semi-structured interviews; an embodied level using the micro-phenomenological interview and body mapping, and a non-verbal level also provided by the body mapping method. Results: Four overarching themes were identified from the qualitative data collected from the semi-structured interviews. These themes outlined a process of sense-making that transformed the relationship participants had with their symptoms and with themselves. The micro-phenomenological interview allowed identification of the micro-dynam...
Constructivist Foundations, 2021
Alexander Riegler • Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium • riegler/at/constructivist.info >... more Alexander Riegler • Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium • riegler/at/constructivist.info > Context • The enactive approach to cognition affirms the relevance of the study of lived experience within cognitive science. > Problem • Taking experience as the phenomenon of investigation, while at the same time recognizing it as a necessary medium of any scientific activity implies theoretical, epistemological, and methodological challenges that have to be addressed in order to undertake the scientific study of experience. At the same time, it calls for a development of an alternative, non-objectivist and non-representationalist framework for and by addressing those challenges. > Method • After presenting the development of the idea of cognition as enaction and pointing to its consequences for the understanding of science, we situate the scientific study of experience within the enactive approach, presenting neurophenomenology as the methodological implementation of the enactive framework that motivated the development of first-person methods. We distinguish the micro-phenomenological interview and descriptive experience sampling as examples of such methods, reviewing their distinctive features. > Results • Understanding first-person research against the background of the enactive approach is shown to be crucial for bringing about the radical epistemological shift that an enactive position entails. > Implications • The examination of the relationship between first-person research and enaction makes it possible to clarify the ground from which to address the specific challenges that arise in studying lived experience. Investigating these challenges is necessary for developing a coherent research program for the enactive scientific study of experience. >
Frontiers in Psychology, Feb 11, 2015
The multidimensional assessment of interoceptive awareness (MAIA) is an instrument designed to as... more The multidimensional assessment of interoceptive awareness (MAIA) is an instrument designed to assess interoceptive awareness.The aim of this study was to adapt the original MAIA scale to Spanish and to analyze its psychometric properties in a Chilean population. The MAIA was administered to 470 adults, aged 18-70 years, 76.6% women and 23.4% men, residents of the provinces of Valparaíso and Concepción, Chile. Exploratory factor analysis reduced the scale from 32 to 30 items. Confirmatory factor analysis supports a structure of eight interrelated factors (Noticing, Not-Distracting, Not-Worrying, Attention Regulation, Emotional Awareness, Self-Regulation, Body Listening, and Trusting), similar to the original scale (2 χ (371) = 659.78, p = 0.0001; CFI = 0.92, TLI = 0.91, RMSEA = 0.056 and SRMR = 0.059).The Spanish version showed appropriate indicators of construct validity and reliability, with a Cronbach's α of 0.90 for the total scale, and values between 0.40 and 0.86 for the different subscales. Similar to previous studies, low reliability was observed in two of the eight scales (Not-Distracting and Not-Worrying), thus further revision of these subscales is suggested. The Spanish version of MAIA proved to be a valid and reliable tool to investigate interoceptive awareness in the Chilean population.
Constructivist Foundations, 2013
Context: Despite the fact that pain and body awareness are by definition subjective experiences, ... more Context: Despite the fact that pain and body awareness are by definition subjective experiences, most studies assessing these phenomena and the relationship between them have done so from a “…
Constructivist Foundations, 2019
Frontiers in psychology, 2017
Disruption of fear conditioning, its extinction and its retrieval are at the core of posttraumati... more Disruption of fear conditioning, its extinction and its retrieval are at the core of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Such deficits, especially fear extinction delay, disappear after alternating bilateral stimulations (BLS) during eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. An animal model of fear recovery, based on auditory cued fear conditioning and extinction learning, recently showed that BLS facilitate fear extinction and fear extinction retrieval. Our goal was to determine if these previous results found in animals can be reproduced in humans. Twenty-two healthy participants took part in a classical fear conditioning, extinction, and extinction recall paradigm. Behavioral responses (fear expectations) as well as psychophysiological measures (skin conductance responses, SCRs) were recorded. The results showed a significant fear expectation decrease during fear extinction with BLS. Additionally, SCR for fear extinction retrieval were significantly lower wi...
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2014
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2017
Fibromyalgia is a widespread chronic pain disease characterized by generalized musculoskeletal pa... more Fibromyalgia is a widespread chronic pain disease characterized by generalized musculoskeletal pain and fatigue. It substantially affects patients' relationship with their bodies and quality of life, but few studies have investigated the relationship between pain and body awareness in fibromyalgia. We examined exteroceptive and interoceptive aspects of body awareness in 30 women with fibromyalgia and 29 control participants. Exteroceptive body awareness was assessed by a body-scaled action-anticipation task in which participants estimated whether they could pass through apertures of different widths. Interoceptive sensitivity (IS) was assessed by a heartbeat detection task where participants counted their heartbeats during different time intervals. Interoceptive awareness was assessed by the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA). The "passability ratio" (the aperture size for a 50% positive response rate, divided by shoulder width), assessed by the body-scaled action-anticipation task, was higher for fibromyalgia participants, indicating disrupted exteroceptive awareness. Overestimating body size correlated positively with pain and its impact on functionality, but not with pain intensity. There was no difference in IS between groups. Fibromyalgia patients exhibited a higher tendency to note bodily sensations and decreased body confidence. In addition, the passability ratio and IS score correlated negatively across the whole sample, suggesting an inverse relationship between exteroceptive and interoceptive body awareness. There was a lower tendency to actively listen to the body for insight, with higher passability ratios across the whole sample. Based on our results and building on the fear-avoidance model, we outline a proposal that highlights possible interactions between exteroceptive and interoceptive body awareness and pain. Movement based contemplative practices that target sensory-motor integration and foster non-judgmental reconnection with bodily sensations are suggested to improve body confidence, functionality, and quality of life.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2013
GMS Journal of Arts Therapies , 2021
Objective: The aim of the present study was to explore the bodily experience of fibromyalgia pati... more Objective: The aim of the present study was to explore the bodily experience of fibromyalgia patients' recovery process, focusing on the changes Camila Valenzuela-Moguillansky 1,2 that, from the patients' perspective, were significant in the progression towards health.
Constructivist Foundations, 2017
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium • ariegler/at/vub.ac.be > Context • More than 20 years... more Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium • ariegler/at/vub.ac.be > Context • More than 20 years ago Varela initiated a research program to advance in the scientific study of consciousness , neurophenomenology. > Problem • Has Varela's neurophenomenology, the solution to the " hard problem, " been successful? Which issues remain unresolved, and why? > Method • This introduction sketches the progress that has been made since then and links it to the contributions to this special issue. > Results • Instead of a unified research field, today we find a variety of different interpretations and implementations of neurophenomenology. We argue that neurophe-nomenology needs to give additional attention to its experiential dimension by addressing first-person methods' specific challenges and by rethinking the relationship between the frameworks of the first-and third-person approaches.
This paper describes a method for analyzing a corpus of descriptions collected through micro-phen... more This paper describes a method for analyzing a corpus of descriptions collected through micro-phenomenological interviews. This analysis aims at identifying the structure of the singular experiences which have been described, and in particular their diachronic structure, while unfolding generic experiential structures through an iterative approach. After summarizing the principles of the micro-phenomenological interview, and then describing the process of preparation of the verbatim, the article presents on the one hand, the principles and conceptual devices of the analysis method and on the other hand several dimensions of the analysis process: the modes of structural unfolding of generic structures, the mutual guidance of the processes of structural and experiential unfolding, the tracking of analysis processes, and finally the assessment of analysis results.
Des etudes montrent l’existence d’une relation bidirectionnelle entre la douleur et differentes f... more Des etudes montrent l’existence d’une relation bidirectionnelle entre la douleur et differentes formes de perturbations de la conscience du corps. Ces perturbations ont deja ete signalees dans les syndromes douloureux chroniques comme le syndrome de douleur regionale complexe, la douleur du membre fantome et la douleur chronique au bas du dos. D’autres etudes demontrent aussi que les modifications creees dans la conscience du corps par l'utilisation de differents appareils, tels que la boite a miroir, les prismes et, plus recemment, la realite virtuelle, modulent la perception douloureuse. Cette these a explore cette relation en deux parties. Dans la premiere, j'ai explore l'effet d'une modification du sentiment d’appartenance du corps, un des aspects de la conscience du corps, sur la perception de la douleur. Pour ce faire, en utilisant une illusion visio-tactile appele « l'illusion de la main en caoutchouc », j'ai modifie le sentiment d’appartenance du corp...
Resumen en: This review article addresses the relationship between chronic pain and body awarenes... more Resumen en: This review article addresses the relationship between chronic pain and body awareness. Chronic pain refers to an ensemble of pain conditions who...
Revista Chilena de Neuropsicologia, 2012
espanolEste articulo aborda la relacion entre el dolor cronico y la conciencia corporal. El dolor... more espanolEste articulo aborda la relacion entre el dolor cronico y la conciencia corporal. El dolor cronico se refiere a un conjunto de patologias que se caracterizan por la presencia constante de dolor, cuya intensidad y duracion no pueden ser explicadas en terminos de lesiones del sistema nervioso periferico. La falta de explicacion en terminos de dano periferico ha llevado a los investigadores a suponer que el sistema nervioso central desempena un papel crucial en estos sindromes. En particular, se ha propuesto que la cronicidad del dolor causada posiblemente por una perturbacion de los mecanismos involucrados en lo que podria llamar-se la conciencia corporal 'exteroceptiva'. En la primera parte de este articulo presento estudios que muestran una relacion bi-direccional entre el dolor cronico y la conciencia corporal exteroceptiva, asi como la hipotesis que el este dolor resulta de la perturbacion de los mecanismos subyacentes a este tipo de conciencia corporal. A continuacion, presento algunos problemas que esta hipotesis no logra explicar, y considero la relacion entre el dolor cronico y el sistema nervioso autonomo. Por ultimo, considero esta ultima relacion a la luz de la nocion de conciencia corporal 'interoceptiva', y sugiero que la comprension de los mecanismos que relacionan los aspectos exteroceptivos e interoceptivos de la conciencia corporal, podrian contribuir a la comprension de la natura-leza y el desarrollo de dolor cronico. EnglishThis review article addresses the relationship between chronic pain and body awareness. Chronic pain refers to an ensemble of pain conditions whose common characteristic is the fact that peripheral lesions cannot explain the duration and intensity of the pain. The lack of explanation in terms of peripheral damage has led researchers to assume that the central nervous system plays a crucial role in these conditions. In particular, one suggestion about how such central factors might operate is by influencing patients? body awareness. In the first part of this article I present evidence showing a bidirectional relationship between chronic pain and what might be called "exteroceptive" body awareness, as well as the related hypothesis that pain results from a disruption in the mechanisms underlying exteroceptive body awareness. Next, I discuss some issues that this hypothesis fails to explain, and I consider the relationship between chronic pain and the autonomic nervous system. Finally, I relate this latter relationship to the notion of "interoceptive" body awareness, and explore the idea that understanding the mechanisms that relate exteroceptive and interoceptive aspects of body awareness might shed light on the nature and development of chronic pain.
PLoS ONE, 2012
This paper describes the development of a multidimensional self-report measure of interoceptive b... more This paper describes the development of a multidimensional self-report measure of interoceptive body awareness. The systematic mixed-methods process involved reviewing the current literature, specifying a multidimensional conceptual framework, evaluating prior instruments, developing items, and analyzing focus group responses to scale items by instructors and patients of body awareness-enhancing therapies. Following refinement by cognitive testing, items were field-tested in students and instructors of mind-body approaches. Final item selection was achieved by submitting the field test data to an iterative process using multiple validation methods, including exploratory cluster and confirmatory factor analyses, comparison between known groups, and correlations with established measures of related constructs. The resulting 32-item multidimensional instrument assesses eight concepts. The psychometric properties of these final scales suggest that the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) may serve as a starting point for research and further collaborative refinement.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2015
The multidimensional assessment of interoceptive awareness (MAIA) is an instrument designed to as... more The multidimensional assessment of interoceptive awareness (MAIA) is an instrument designed to assess interoceptive awareness.The aim of this study was to adapt the original MAIA scale to Spanish and to analyze its psychometric properties in a Chilean population. The MAIA was administered to 470 adults, aged 18-70 years, 76.6% women and 23.4% men, residents of the provinces of Valparaíso and Concepción, Chile. Exploratory factor analysis reduced the scale from 32 to 30 items. Confirmatory factor analysis supports a structure of eight interrelated factors (Noticing, Not-Distracting, Not-Worrying, Attention Regulation, Emotional Awareness, Self-Regulation, Body Listening, and Trusting), similar to the original scale (2 χ (371) = 659.78, p = 0.0001; CFI = 0.92, TLI = 0.91, RMSEA = 0.056 and SRMR = 0.059).The Spanish version showed appropriate indicators of construct validity and reliability, with a Cronbach's α of 0.90 for the total scale, and values between 0.40 and 0.86 for the different subscales. Similar to previous studies, low reliability was observed in two of the eight scales (Not-Distracting and Not-Worrying), thus further revision of these subscales is suggested. The Spanish version of MAIA proved to be a valid and reliable tool to investigate interoceptive awareness in the Chilean population.
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Papers by Camila Valenzuela-Moguillansky