Bodily perception of our hands, feet, and whole body

Abstract

This thesis examines differences in sensing, imagining and feelings towards our hands, feet, and whole body in healthy participants, via three online experimental studies. The first chapter describes the theoretical background used to develop this thesis, encompassing the most up-to-date theories on body representation that form the basis of our knowledge on the topic. The second chapter (sensing) describes a study exploring whether spontaneous sensations (SPS), in other words, sensations we feel without external stimulation, differ between our hands, feet and whole body. This study also explores whether visual attention influences the experience of SPS. One hundred and seventy-five individuals completed an SPS task measuring the general tendency to experience SPS (SPSTrait) and the experience of SPS in a precise moment (SPSState), along with an endogenous visual attention task. The results show that the SPS experience differs between the precise moment and the general tendency, and across our body districts. My findings show that we tend to experience SPS, in general, more strongly in our whole body than our feet (SPSTrait), while our in-the-moment attention to SPS (SPSState) is the same across the body districts. This experience does not depend on visual attention differences. The study described in the third chapter (imagining) explores whether the representation of the body in action, measured via motor imagery, differs between our hands, feet, and whole body depending on the levels of awareness required by the task administered. Sixty participants completed a series of Implicit Association Tests (a more implicit motor imagery task), a Mental Motor Chronometry task (a more explicit motor imagery task), and a visual imagery questionnaire. All tasks targeted the representation of hands, feet and whole body. The results show that when the task requires less awareness to be solved, in other words, it is more implicit, there are no differences between hands, feet and whole body. While differences can be found when more awareness of our own body representation and related processes is required, with a stronger motor imagery for the hands than the whole body. This finding is not due to visual imagery differences, as demonstrated by the results of the visual imagery questionnaire I administered. The study described in the fourth chapter (feelings towards our body) adopts a similar approach to the previous one, but this time I focused on emotional body representations, measured via body image. I explored whether these representations differ in our hands, feet, and whole body, considering more implicit and explicit levels of awareness. Sixty-seven participants completed a series of Implicit Association Tests (a more implicit body image task) and a Body Image Satisfaction Visual Analogue Scale (a more explicit body image task) for hands, feet and whole body. The results show no differences in the more implicit level of awareness in hands, feet and whole body, while differences are apparent at a more explicit level of awareness, with higher scores for body image satisfaction for the hands than the whole body and marginally significant lower scores for feet than hands. In the fifth and final chapter, a general discussion of the findings, their novelty and the impact on applications of body representation is presented. Overall, my studies show that the mental representations of our hands, feet and whole body are different. Hands appear to have a more pronounced effect on our body representation at a more explicit level of awareness and at imagining and feelings towards our body representational levels. This suggests the possibility of a separate and different representation for hands, depending on the level of awareness (more explicit) and representation (imagining/feelings towards our body)