Interoception and Body Scan

University of Valencia

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 2; Phase 1

Conditions: Healthy

Treatments: Behavioral: Somatosensory body scan (SBS); Behavioral: External control meditation (ECM); Behavioral: Visceral body scan (VBS)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06237530

2569173

Details and patient eligibility

About

Body scan meditation has been assumed to be an interoceptive intervention, and the evidence for its effects on interoceptive processes is unclear. Although this mindfulness based exercise typically involves focusing on some interoceptive signals such as breath, it also involves other bodily cues, such as somatosensory cues. The present study aimed to (1) investigate the feasibility of three online delivered mindfulness practices that differ in the signals targeted: visceral body scan (VBS), somatosensory body scan (SBS), and external (non body) meditation (ECM), and (2) gain insight into the potentially different effects of these interventions on interoceptive and other psychological outcomes in order to inform future full scale randomized controlled trials (RCT).

Enrollment: 48 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age over 18
• being Spanish or English speakers
• Ability to use a computer or smartphone
• Daily access to computer or smartphone with an Internet connection

Exclusion criteria

• Being diagnosed with a severe psychiatric disorder (e.g., substance abuse, eating disorder, psychotic disorder)
• Severe visual or auditory difficulties that cannot be corrected with glasses or auditory aids
• Having a medical condition that prevents participation in this study
• Changes in psychotropic medication during the study
• Having been exposed to any extremely traumatic event that is being re-experienced or interfering during the last month
• Body image-related difficulties as indicated by scores above 3 on the Body Image as Source of Shame questionnaire.
• Regular meditation practice in the current moment

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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48 participants in 3 patient groups

Visceral Body Scan (VBS)

Experimental group

Description:

The VBS consisted of a mindfulness exercise designed to bring awareness to visceral sensations in the cardiac, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and urinary systems. These physiological systems were chosen because most of the paradigms developed in the literature to assess interoception focus on them (Khalsa et al., and they are widely recognized in the literature as interoceptive senses (Nord \& Garfinkel, 2022)

Treatment:

Behavioral: Visceral body scan (VBS)

Somatosensory body scan (SBS)

Active Comparator group

Description:

The SBS consisted of a mindfulness exercise designed to bring awareness to tactile (e.g., itching) and musculoskeletal (e.g. g., tension) sensations in different parts of the body, namely, the head and neck, back, arms, and legs. Body scan exercises typically focus on these types of bodily cues (in addition to breathing) (Williams, 2010).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Somatosensory body scan (SBS)

External control meditation (ECM)

Sham Comparator group

Description:

The ECM consisted of a mindfulness exercise designed to bring awareness to external stimuli, including sounds and visual properties of the environment

Treatment:

Behavioral: External control meditation (ECM)