Influencias corporales en la representación de conceptos y en procesos psicológicos relacionados con el mantenimiento de la depresiónuna aproximación desde la teoría de grounded cognition

Resumen

Within the present work, we will introduce the concept of embodied cognition, an approach that considers the role of the body in cognitive processing. General findings of this approach and particularly those studies that could have intersections or implications for applied clinical psychology will be reviewed. This empirical work includes three experiments aimed to examine the role of the body on mood regulation processes that will be described and discussed. Finally, we draw some conclusions and assess the implications which these experiments may have for clinical psychology. The repercussion of embodied cognition on scientific research and the interest of authors of different fields on this topic have increased exponentially in the last ten years, especially in cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology, social and developmental psychology, but also in robotics, psycholinguistics and cognitive linguistics (Barsalou, 2010). The embodied cognition account has revealed the enthusiasm of some researchers, up to a point that some authors have proposed that embodiment may be the appropriate framework for unifying psychological science (Schubert - Semin, 2009).For the aim of the present study we considered that mood regulation was a suitable target process, as it is a perfect intersection between the ultimate function of emotions (Koole, 2009) and a diversity of implicit and explicit operational modes (Gyurak, Gross, - Etkin, 2011). Thus, in the present work, general information concerning mood regulation will be provided. In addition, three experiments, conducted to experimentally explore the influence of bodily states on mood regulation, will be reported.The embodiment account could have important theoretical and practical implications in the field of clinical psychology. For example, Lindeman and Abramson (2008) model suggests that simulation of motor incapacity could be responsible for motor symptoms of depression. Although Lindeman and Abramson-s model only refers to symptoms of motor incapacity, providing theoretical basement in support of their hypotheses, it does not constrain the possible influence of bodily states on motor symptoms of depression. In fact, the results obtained in the present work suggest that the influence of bodily states goes beyond symptoms of motor incapacity. At least in subclinical samples, vertical head movements in combination with positive images seem to improve the mood regulation ability of dysphoric individuals. Bodily states could interact with internal and external information influencing other emotional processes related to depression. The embodiment account reflects the idea that multimodal information is reenacted producing higher order cognitive and emotional processes. This is a notion in line with the cognitive and emotional functioning proposed by multi-level models of emotion (Philippot, Baeyens, Douilliez, - Francart, 2004; Power - Dalgleish, 1997; 2008; Teasdale - Barnard, 1993). Despite their interest, these models have generated a small amount of research, probably due to their complexity. Studies based on paradigms with an origin on the embodiment approach, such as those included in this work, could help to add more evidence in support of the notions proposed by multi-level models of emotion.It is important to note that some of these paradigms have been successfully employed to modify bias towards alcohol (Wiers et al., 2011) and that the combination of cognitive bias modification based on approach and avoidance movements with CB interventions improved the percentage of relapse in alcoholic patients. These results may encourage us to devote more efforts to the study of the efficacy of psychological interventions that include somatic elements as central in psychological therapy.The inclusion of the somatic path as a research topic common to all psychological approaches might become one of the main challenges of psychology over the next decades.