Browsing by Subject "interoception"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Investigating Novel Virtual Reality and Telehealth Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Training Interoceptive Awareness
    (2023-10) Haley, Alexander
    Interoception – the ability to sense and integrate internal body signals – plays a critical role in how complex organisms survive and function. It is essential for maintaining stable conditions within the body (e.g., keeping warm), for meeting daily needs within a changing world (e.g., quenching thirst), and for adapting to future needs (e.g., remembering seasonal changes in foraging spots). While research into interoception started more than a hundred years ago, it is not well understood today. Researchers are still mapping out all of the brain and body pathways through which interoception operates. Additionally, research into the most optimal methods for manipulating and measuring interoception is at an early stage. Despite these uncertainties, prior research suggests that a person’s conscious awareness of internal body signals, known as interoceptive awareness, is not a fixed capacity, rather it can be altered through training. This dissertation investigates how mindfulness practices can be combined with emerging technology to train interoceptive awareness. First, we introduce a novel virtual reality (VR) mindfulness-based intervention that is designed for cultivating greater interoceptive awareness. As part of this work, we also introduce a new qualitative methodology to understand users’ experiences of interoceptive awareness in VR. We found that the methodology elicited valuable responses from participants regarding their interoceptive awareness experiences within the novel VR mindfulness-based intervention. Most significantly, our work represents the first attempts to qualitatively investigate a multi-dimensional model of interoceptive awareness in VR. It also establishes a critical foundation for conducting future follow-on comparative studies that can provide more complete design guidelines for how best to train interoceptive awareness in VR. Next, we assessed the efficacy of a novel group telehealth mindfulness intervention, compared to an active control, for enhancing interoceptive awareness. While this second intervention is distinct from the prior VR mindfulness-based intervention, it answers the critical question of whether interoceptive awareness can be trained via a group intervention delivered remotely versus alone in a lab. We found that the remote, group mindfulness intervention can improve interoceptive awareness and that these gains are relatively stable at six and twelve month follow-up time points. Lastly, we confirmed that the telehealth intervention can be delivered by non-mindfulness experts, which points to the promise of scalable, group telehealth mindfulness interventions. Finally, we examine potential predictive factors related to interoceptive awareness outcomes by conducting a hierarchical regression analysis. Knowledge of potential predictive factors is useful for optimizing interventions to enhance interoceptive awareness outcomes for various populations. We found that several factors influence post-intervention interoceptive awareness outcomes. Specifically, the factors of age, baseline mindfulness, and change in mindfulness from baseline to intervention completion significantly influence interoceptive awareness. In terms of baseline mindfulness, current literature has under-investigated this factor even though there is evidence that prior experience with mindfulness is very widespread in the United States. In summary, our work is a first step in the longer journey of weaving together emerging technologies with evidence-based interventions to positively impact public health. By studying two novel interventions individually before pursuing their combination, we hope to establish a solid foundation from which to pursue our larger, long-term vision. This larger vision includes the potential of VR as a powerful computing medium for embodied simulations to leverage telehealth as a critical mode of healthcare delivery to bring evidence-based health interventions outside the confines of traditional healthcare settings. We envision a future where clinicians, computer scientists, artists, and community members co-create immersive, social VR applications that connect geographically distant users to cultivate greater health and wellbeing around the world.
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    One-on-one Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga sessions: A longitudinal examination study
    (2023-05) Dietrich, Kelsey Madison
    Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) is an evidence-based adjunctive somatic treatment for complex trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that can be used as a stand-alone session or integrated during psychotherapy in group or one-on-one contexts. Research on TCTSY delivered in group settings has found that this protocolized yoga intervention improves mental health outcomes in clinical samples. Although designed to be used in group or individual contexts, previous studies have focused only on TCTSY practiced in groups. This study examined the impacts of one-on-one TCTSY (i.e., one participant receiving TCTSY services not in a group TCTSY context) on anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress, and interoception over time. The Center for Trauma and Embodiment, the certifying body for TCTSY, emailed the study invitation to the TCTSY-Facilitator listserv monthly from April-November 2022. Facilitators currently offering one-on-one TCTSY shared the study opportunity with their clients. Ten clients (women n = 8; men n = 2; Mage = 44.80 years, SD = 11.91; PTSD diagnosis n = 9) who were currently participating in one-on-one TCTSY in the contexts of TCTSY only (n = 4) and TCTSY with psychotherapy (n = 6) completed Qualtrics surveys prior to each TCTSY session attended from June-December 2022. Results from linear mixed model analyses found statistically significant effects of time on improvements in the psychological symptoms of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress and the interoceptive domains of attention regulation, self-regulation, and body listening. No statistically significant interaction effects of group by time were observed for any outcomes. Implications and future directions are discussed.
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    Preliminary Rasch analysis of the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness in adults with stroke
    (2023-11-16) Blackwood, Jena; Carpentier, Sydney; Deng, Wei; Van de Winckel, Ann; avandewi@umn.edu; Van de Winckel, Ann; Brain Body Mind Lab
    This datafile is connected to a planned manuscript submission for the journal PLOS ONE. This xls file contains brief demographic and clinical data as well as the scoring of the 32 items of the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness in Adults with Chronic Stroke in the US.
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    Trauma-Informed Weight Lifting as an Adjunctive Intervention for Posttraumatic Stress Among Adolescents in Residential Treatment
    (2024-05) Lee, Elizabeth Kathleen
    There is little research on the effects of weightlifting as an adjunctive embodiment-based intervention on posttraumatic stress symptoms among adolescents with complex trauma histories. Therefore, the present study sought to explore how a newly developed adjunctive embodiment-based intervention, Trauma-Informed Weight Lifting (TIWL), influenced participants’ self-reported posttraumatic stress and associated mental health symptoms. Twelve adolescents from two residential facilities participated in the current study. Seven participants engaged in a weekly, eight-week TIWL intervention. Following a participant preference approach, participants without a preference for engaging in TIWL were assigned to the treatment as usual (TAU) comparison condition (n = 5). Those who engaged in TIWL were compared to those in the TAU group. Posttraumatic stress and associated symptoms were measured with six validated self-report measures. Symptoms were assessed before participants started TIWL, mid-way through the intervention, at the end, at 4-week post-intervention follow-up. Posttraumatic stress symptoms and interoception were assessed weekly. Overall, TIWL appeared feasible and acceptable in an adolescent residential treatment setting based on participants’ attendance rate (87.5%) and ratings of helpfulness (Ms = 75.71–94.71). Although effects were not maintained at follow-up and demonstrated some mixed findings between the weekly and monthly outcomes, the present study provided overall evidence for the efficacy of TIWL in lowered posttraumatic stress (Mi-j = -3.39, t = -2.08, p = .04, dRM, pooled = 3.20), depression (F(4, 5.25) = 6.73, p = .03, dRM, pooled = 0.59), and stress symptoms (F(4, 5.04) = 9.76, p = .01, dRM, pooled = 0.05) and higher levels of interoception (Mi-j = 0.45, t = 0.73, p = .47, dRM, pooled = 0.18) at the last TIWL session compared to baseline. There was also a large difference (~1.32 SD) in arousal and reactivity symptom levels between the TIWL condition and the comparison condition, with greater differences in Week 1 to Week 8 scores for the TIWL condition. From baseline to the four-week post-intervention follow-up self-reported avoidance (Mi-j = 0.67, t = -0.50, p = .25, dRM, pooled = -0.39), arousal and reactivity (Mi-j = 3.21, t = 1.16, p = .15, dRM, pooled = -0.27) and derealization (Mi-j = 0.69, t = 1.01, p = .15, dRM, pooled = -0.30) posttraumatic stress symptoms were higher in the TIWL condition. Given that two of the seven TIWL participants dropped out after two sessions, posthoc exploratory analyses were conducted with them removed. These analyses showed lower posttraumatic stress (Mi-j = -11.28, t = -1.39, p = .11, dRM, pooled = 0.94), depression (Mi-j = -3.88, t = -1.27, p = .13, dRM, pooled = 0.64), anxiety (Mi-j = -2.24, t = -1.26, p = .12, dRM, pooled = 1.17) and stress (Mi-j = -4.45, t = -1.68, p = .08, dRM, pooled = 0.63) symptoms from baseline to follow-up. Therefore, the participants who received a minimum of seven sessions of TIWL reported improvements in their posttraumatic stress and associated mental health symptoms from baseline to follow-up with large effects. Researching the effects of TIWL and extending beyond the present pilot study (e.g., multiple trials starting at different time points, larger sample sizes, different doses, comparing TIWL to a standard weightlifting group) are warranted given the potential confounds that could not be controlled for here.