Embodying anticipated affect enhances proactive behavior in 5-year-old children.

Imagining anticipated affects can foster future-oriented behavior in adults. However, children often still have difficulties in vividly imagining how they will feel in a specific episode (affective episodic future thinking [EFT]). We investigated whether enacting anticipated affects helps children to imagine how they will feel and whether this enhances proactive behavior in turn. A total of 90 5-year-old children were randomly assigned to one of three groups. In the embodiment group, children were instructed to imagine and physically enact how positive and negative they would feel in an upcoming performance test. Children in the EFT-only group underwent a similar procedure but did not enact their future affect. In the control group, children were reminded of the upcoming test only without receiving a prompt to imagine the upcoming test. After the manipulation, children had the opportunity to play one of three games. One game was relevant for the test. Children's choice to play the relevant game in advance of the test served as an indicator for proactive behavior. Mechanisms (e.g., detailedness of the envisioned event) and moderators (theory of mind and neuroticism) of the link between embodied EFT and proactive behavior were explored. Children in the embodiment group chose the relevant game above chance level, but they did not choose the relevant game more often than children in the EFT-only group and the control group. Those results were independent of the assumed mediators and moderators.

Embodied cognition and L2 sentence comprehension: an eye-tracking study of motor representations.

Introduction: Evidence from neuroscience and behavioral research has indicated that language meaning is grounded in our motor-perceptual experiences of the world. However, the question of whether motor embodiment occurs at the sentence level in L2 (second language) comprehension has been raised. Furthermore, existing studies on motor embodiment in L2 have primarily focused on the lexical and phrasal levels, often providing conflicting and indeterminate results. Therefore, to address this gap, the present eye-tracking study aimed to explore the embodied mental representations formed during the reading comprehension of L2 action sentences. Specifically, it sought to identify the types of motor representations formed during L2 action sentence comprehension and the extent to which these representations are motor embodied. Methods: A total of 56 advanced L2 learners participated in a Sentence-Picture Verification Task, during which their response times (RTs) and eye movements were recorded. Each sentence-picture pair depicted an action that either matched or mismatched the action implied by the sentence. Data analysis focused on areas of interest around the body effectors. Results and discussion: RTs in the mismatch condition indicated an impeding effect. Furthermore, fixations on the body effector executing an action were longer in the mismatch condition, especially in late eye-movement measures.

The effect of physical cleansing on moral activities.

Research suggests that physical cleansing leads individuals to perceive themselves as morally purer, thereby influencing their moral activities, but findings are inconsistent. Some researchers have found that individuals act more morally after physical cleansing, whereas others have observed the reverse effect. Building on embodied cognition theory, which holds that cognition is developed from physical experience and that this experience in turn guides their responses, we hypothesized that physical cleansing would have a general impact on individuals' moral activities by highlighting themselves. In contrast to previous research, we did not expect that physical cleansing would directly make people more (im)moral. Two experiments were conducted to test our hypotheses. In experiment 1, participants who had bathed showed reduced susceptibility to external moral priming (morality-related descriptions of themselves) than did control participants. Experiment 2 showed that physical cleansing (but not the control condition) amplified the interplay among participants' moral activities, depending on the order of immoral behavior and intention measurement. Taken together, these results suggest that physical cleansing strengthens the connection between individuals' morality and bodily experiences, weakening the effect of external priming (experiment 1) and enhancing the influence of moral activities performed by themselves (experiment 2). Although further research is required to provide direct evidence for these findings, our study contributes to the integration of inconsistencies in previous findings by suggesting a new perspective for the understanding of the embodied effect of physical cleansing.

The diversity of possible constitutive components in cognitive neurosciences.

I aim to discuss which constitutive components are essential for explaining how the mind works. Rather than focusing on some specific components, I emphasize their diversity. Thus, I seek to complement the recent mechanistic proposal by underscoring that researchers should remain open-minded about which constitutive components should be investigated.

Advancing mechanistic explanations through natural and artificial embodied cognitive systems.

Mougenot and Matheson propose that mechanistic models can explain behavior by describing the complex interactions among components of the brain, body, and environment as an integrated system, which aligns with embodied cognition. However, we suggest incorporating cognitive ontology theory and addressing degeneracy and neuronal reuse. We also recommend studying natural embodied cognition through artificial systems to develop a comprehensive mechanistic framework.

Embodied hyperscanning for studying social interaction: A scoping review of simultaneous brain and body measurements.

We systematically investigated the application of embodied hyperscanning methodologies in social neuroscience research. Hyperscanning enables the simultaneous recording of neurophysiological and physiological signals from multiple participants. We highlight the trend toward integrating Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI) within the 4E research framework, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of brain, body, and environment. Our analysis revealed a geographic concentration of studies in the Global North, calling for global collaboration and transcultural research to balance the field. The predominant use of Magneto/Electroencephalogram (M/EEG) in these studies suggests a traditional brain-centric perspective in social neuroscience. Future research directions should focus on integrating diverse techniques to capture the dynamic interplay between brain and body functions in real-world contexts. Our review also finds a preference for tasks involving natural settings. Nevertheless, the analysis in hyperscanning studies is often limited to physiological signal synchrony between participants. This suggests a need for more holistic and complex approaches that combine inter-corporeal synchrony with intra-individual measures. We believe that the future of the neuroscience of relationships lies in embracing the complexity of cognition, integrating diverse methods and theories to enrich our grasp of human social behavior in its natural contexts.

Where the 'bad' and the 'good' go: A multi-lab direct replication report of Casasanto (2009, Experiment 1).

Casasanto (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 138, 351-367, 2009) conceptualised the body-specificity hypothesis by empirically finding that right-handed people tend to associate a positive valence with the right side and a negative valence with the left side, whilst left-handed people tend to associate a positive valence with the left side and negative valence with the right side. Thus, this was the first paper that showed a body-specific space-valence mapping. These highly influential findings led to a substantial body of research and follow-up studies, which could confirm the original findings on a conceptual level. However, direct replications of the original study are scarce. Against this backdrop and given the replication crisis in psychology, we conducted a direct replication of Casasanto's original study with 2,222 participants from 12 countries to examine the aforementioned effects in general and also in a cross-cultural comparison. Our results support Casasanto's findings that right-handed people associate the right side with positivity and the left side with negativity and vice versa for left-handers.

Neural Dynamic Principles for an Intentional Embodied Agent.

How situated embodied agents may achieve goals using knowledge is the classical question of natural and artificial intelligence. How organisms achieve this with their nervous systems is a central challenge for a neural theory of embodied cognition. To structure this challenge, we borrow terms from Searle's analysis of intentionality in its two directions of fit and six psychological modes (perception, memory, belief, intention-in-action, prior intention, desire). We postulate that intentional states are instantiated by neural activation patterns that are stabilized by neural interaction. Dynamic instabilities provide the neural mechanism for initiating and terminating intentional states and are critical to organizing sequences of intentional states. Beliefs represented by networks of concept nodes are autonomously learned and activated in response to desired outcomes. The neural dynamic principles of an intentional agent are demonstrated in a toy scenario in which a robotic agent explores an environment and paints objects in desired colors based on learned color transformation rules.

Fracturing the affordance space: an account of digitalized alienation.

This paper investigates the lived experience of alienation as a form of mental strife or pathology as it is connected to the digitalization of modern life. To do so, I deploy the concept of affordances from ecological psychology, phenomenology, and embodied cognition. I propose an affordance-based model for understanding digitalized alienation. First, I argue that the lived sense of alienation is best understood as a fracturing of the affordance space, where possibilities for action are lived as disconnected from one another and therefore from one's personal development and search for meaning. Using this model, I show how the process of digitalization can lead to a lived sense of alienation for modern subjects. On this model, digitalization is alienating insofar as it fractures the affordance space into disconnected fields that invite determinate, separate, and repeatable tasks-swiping, clicking, scrolling, etc.-rather than offering opportunities for the development of new cognitive and bodily skills that are mutually informing and enriching across different affordance fields.

Differences in brain connectivity between older adults practicing Tai Chi and Water Aerobics: a case-control study.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the neural mechanisms that differentiate mind-body practices from aerobic physical activities and elucidate their effects on cognition and healthy aging. We examined functional brain connectivity in older adults (age > 60) without pre-existing uncontrolled chronic diseases, comparing Tai Chi with Water Aerobics practitioners. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional, case-control fMRI study involving two strictly matched groups (n = 32) based on gender, age, education, and years of practice. Seed-to-voxel analysis was performed using the Salience, and Frontoparietal Networks as seed regions in Stroop Word-Color and N-Back tasks and Resting State. Results: During Resting State condition and using Salience network as a seed, Tai Chi group exhibited a stronger correlation between Anterior Cingulate Cortex and Insular Cortex areas (regions related to interoceptive awareness, cognitive control and motor organization of subjective aspects of experience). In N-Back task and using Salience network as seed, Tai Chi group showed increased correlation between Left Supramarginal Gyrus and various cerebellar regions (related to memory, attention, cognitive processing, sensorimotor control and cognitive flexibility). In Stroop task, using Salience network as seed, Tai Chi group showed enhanced correlation between Left Rostral Prefrontal Cortex and Right Occipital Pole, and Right Lateral Occipital Cortex (areas associated with sustained attention, prospective memory, mediate attention between external stimuli and internal intention). Additionally, in Stroop task, using Frontoparietal network as seed, Water Aerobics group exhibited a stronger correlation between Left Posterior Parietal Lobe (specialized in word meaning, representing motor actions, motor planning directed to objects, and general perception) and different cerebellar regions (linked to object mirroring). Conclusion: Our study provides evidence of differences in functional connectivity between older adults who have received training in a mind-body practice (Tai Chi) or in an aerobic physical activity (Water Aerobics) when performing attentional and working memory tasks, as well as during resting state.

Mechanistic explanation and the integration between language and action.

Mechanistic explanations can contribute to strengthening embodied and grounded cognition, capturing the causal structure that produces phenomena. In the commentary, I propose two cases for which a mechanistic explanation would be extremely useful to advance research and understanding. The first, more specific case concerns the need for a mechanistic explanation of the contrasting interference and facilitation results of action-language integration. The second case is more general and regards the importance of providing mechanistic explanations that consider the critical role language, intended as a holistic experience, has in impacting bodily actions.

Incorporating individual differences into a mechanistic embodied cognitive neuroscience.

The review article Theoretical strategies for an embodied cognitive neuroscience proposes that the embodied cognition framework can be applied to develop mechanistic explanations for cognitive neuroscience phenomena. In our commentary we argue that any mechanistic explanation of such phenomena must be able to account for individual differences in cognition that are an inevitable consequence of the varied brain-body-environment experiences that comprise embodied cognition. We propose that, while mechanistic accounts may be able to model individual differences, the definition of mechanistic models may limit their application to the study of individual differences.

Beyond embodiment: Rethinking the integration of cognitive neuroscience and mechanistic explanations.

This commentary critiques Mougenot and Matheson's proposal to integrate embodied cognition with mechanistic explanations in cognitive neuroscience. We suggest more promising directions for embodied cognitive neuroscience, focusing on neuroethological research and evolutionary studies of nervous systems. These approaches, compatible with wide mechanistic explanations, offer a robust path forward by examining central nervous system function within whole organisms in their environments.

How to build a better 4E cognition.

Mougenot and Matheson outline a theoretical approach to cognitive neuroscience that combines the commitments of embodied cognition with a mechanistic approach to scientific explanation. They argue that this theoretical approach provides several general benefits, including enabling researchers to develop more robust theories and ontologies that do not require either neuroscientific reductionism or the complete autonomy of psychology from neuroscience. In this commentary, I argue that the sort of embodied cognitive neuroscience that they envision has a more specific benefit: it has the potential to help resolve internal tensions within 4E cognition.

Mechanisms after the end of New Mechanism.

Mougenot and Matheson provide an interesting analysis on how some core ideas of the 'New Mechanists' - the proponents of a normative framework for scientific explanations based on the identification and description of mechanisms - might be relevant for the development of an embodied approach to cognitive neuroscience. Although we are highly sympathetic to such an approach, we struggle to identify the benefits of adopting the notion of mechanism for such enterprise.

Demystifying Jung's "Archetypes" with Embodied Cognition.

Since he first proposed it, Carl Jung's "archetype" theory has faced resistance from a pervasive but seldom examined set of underlying Cartesian assumptions embedded in mainstream psychology. This paradigm assumed a physical universe (and hence body) free of psyche that coincided with an essentially disembodied mind largely concerned with abstract symbol manipulation. This situation led archetype theory to remain largely within insulated psychoanalytic circles for decades. Since the 1980s, however, cognitive psychology has increasingly become embodied from a variety of standpoints. This article shows how the results of embodied cognition and spontaneous thought "demystify" many of the attributes Jung described in his archetype theory, making archetype theory not only more comprehensible but clinically applicable. Combining approaches suggests new avenues of inquiry for experimental research and enriches the psychoanalytic perspective.

Positive and negative touch differentially modulate metacognitive memory judgements for emotional stimuli.

Touch plays a crucial role in providing humans with information from the external environment and can be perceived by humans as positively or negatively valenced. It is well documented that touch can differentially influence social functions, but very little is known about how touch can modulate (meta)cognition. Utilizing a within-subject design, participants were exposed to (a) positive, (b) negative, and (c) no touch, alongside encoding of emotionally valenced (positive and negative) images. After a 20-minute delay, participants completed a Yes/No recognition task to investigate how touch influenced memory-related decision components (e.g. criterion, confidence). Results showed that, compared to the control condition, both positive and negative touch were associated with overall lower confidence ratings, a less liberal response bias and slower response times. Interestingly, for correct recognitions, only negative touch (vs. no touch) led to inappropriately lower confidence and slower response times while both confidence and response time remained unaltered in positive touch. Our findings provide the first evidence that positive and negative touch differentially interact with metacognitive memory-related decisions. Altered metacognitive judgements after being touched could have significant consequences in applied settings, such as situations of eyewitness testimony.

Enactivism: Embodied cognition, sense-making, and nursing.

Enactivism is a branch of embodied cognition theory that argues for a highly distributed model of cognition as a sense-making process involving brain, body, environment, and subjective experience. It is a theoretical framework with potential value for nursing since it offers an integrated framework for human sense-making that includes physiological and psychological factors as well as the primary experience of subjective perceptions. This paper presents an introduction to the background and main tenets of enactivist theory. These are discussed in relation to nursing, and mental health nursing to argue for the relevance of enactivism in nursing knowledge.

Perception-action coupling in anticipation research: a classification and its application to racket sports.

Anticipation is key to performance in many sports. By definition, anticipation as a perceptual-cognitive process is meant to inform action and help athletes reduce potential motor costs under spatiotemporal pressure. Anticipation research has repeatedly been criticized for neglecting action and raised the need for predominant testing under conditions of perception-action coupling (PAC). To the best of our knowledge, however, there is a lack of explicit criteria to characterize and define PAC conditions. This can lead to blurred terminology and may complicate interpretation and comparability of PAC conditions and results across studies. Here, we make a first proposal for a 7-level classification of PAC conditions with the defining dimensions of stimulus presentation and response mode. We hope this classification may constitute a helpful orientation for study planning and reporting in research on anticipation. Further, we illustrate the potential utilization of the PAC classification as a template for experimental protocol analysis in a review on anticipation in racket sports. Analysis of N = 115 studies reported in N = 91 articles confirms an underrepresentation of representative PAC conditions and reveals little change in PAC approaches over more than 40 years of research in that domain. We discuss potential reasons for these findings, the benefits of adopting the proposed PAC classification and reiterate the call for more action in anticipation research.

The effect of an embodied intervention on responsibility: put a load on one's shoulder.

Responsibility is an essential part of our social life. Although responsibility is an abstract concept, it can be represented with concrete ideas through conceptual metaphor. Expressions like "carry a lot of responsibility," "shoulder the responsibility" shows that responsibility can be understood as a load on shoulder that one has to carry. Accordingly, this study tests the question that does putting a burden on one's shoulder makes him/her more responsible or not. In order to investigate this, on each trial, we asked participants to decide between risky situations that vary in magnitude, probability of win/lose, and the ambiguity level in two conditions: "self" and 'group." Each subject wears a vest with a load on each shoulder in half of the trials. As expected, Most of participants choose to defer on the group trials more than on the self-trials. This difference between numbers of deferring in group and self conditions is called responsibility aversion. Results indicate that responsibility aversion scores are lower (responsibility-taking was greater) in the state of wearing the vest than in the form of not wearing the vest significantly. We provided evidence that the abstract concept of responsibility is linked to bodily experiences of feeling load on the shoulder consistent with an embodied cognition theory.