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Abstract Background Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) feel rejected even when socially included. The pathophysiological mechanisms of this rejection bias are still unknown. Using the Cyberball paradigm, we investigated whether patients with BPD, display altered physiological responses to social inclusion and ostracism, as assessed by changes in Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA). Methods The sample comprised 30 patients with BPD, 30 with remitted Major Depressive Disorder (rMDD) and 30 Healthy Controls (HC). Self-report ratings of threats toward one’s fundamental need to belong and RSA reactivity were measured immediately after each Cyberball condition. Results Participants with BPD showed lower RSA at rest than HC. Only patients with BPD, reported higher threats to fundamental needs and exhibited a further decline in RSA after the Inclusion condition. Conclusions Individuals with BPD experience a biased appraisal of social inclusion both at the subjective and physiological level, showing higher feelings of ostracism and a breakdown of autonomic regulation to including social scenarios.

The digital technological revolution shifted the balance of world perceptual experience, increasing exposure to digital content, introducing a new quality to our perceptual experiences. Embodied cognition offers an ideal vantage point to study how digital technologies impact on selves and their social relations for at least two reasons: first, because of the bodily performative character of the relations and interactions these new media evoke; second, because similar brain-body mechanisms ground our relations with both the physical world and its digital mediations. A closer look is taken at the possible effects of digitization on social communication, on politics, as well as on the constitution of the self and its world relations, especially in the context of the ever-increasing amount of time spent online, with a focus on digital natives. As we explore the complexities of the digital age, it is imperative to critically examine the role of digital technologies in shaping social life and political discourse. By understanding the interplay between content, emotional context, delivery methods, and shareability within digital media landscapes, we can develop strategies to mitigate the negative effects of misinformation and promote informed decision-making in our increasingly digital world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we conducted a behavioural experiment using literal, idiomatic, conventional and novel metaphorical action sentences. Participants viewed an action video, immediately after a sentence containing a verb that did (matching modality) or did not (mismatching modality) match the observed action. All the sentences were presented both in the matching modality and the mismatching modality. Participants had to indicate whether the sentence made sense or not by pressing a designated response key. We recorded participants' reaction times and accuracy. We found no significant differences between the matching and mismatching modality in the idiomatic condition. Instead, we found a facilitation effect for the literal and the metaphorical conventional condition in the matching modality compared to the mismatching modality and an interference effect for the metaphorical novel condition in the matching modality compared to the mismatching modality. We interpret these findings in light of the Embodied Cognition approach to language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embodied simulation, a basic functional mechanism of our brain, and its neural underpinnings are discussed and connected to intersubjectivity and the reception of human cultural artefacts, like visual arts and film. Embodied simulation provides a unified account of both non-verbal and verbal aspects of interpersonal relations that likely play an important role in shaping not only the self and his/her relation to others, but also shared cultural practices. Embodied simulation sheds new light on aesthetic experience and is proposed as a key element for the dialogue between neuroscience and the humanities within the biocultural paradigm.

How do stories often evoke intense feelings and sensations in their readers? This essay explores that question with a new combination of insights from neuroscience and literary theory, while also assessing the difficulties as well as the potential gains of such interdisciplinary research. The authors lay the groundwork for a neurocritical embodied narratology that incorporates both the critiques of traditional humanism within literary studies and of classic cognitivism within neuroscience. Their methodological approach focuses on Feeling of Body (in contrast to Theory of Mind), which may be considered the outcome of a basic functional mechanism instantiated by our brain-body system. Feeling of Body is also a foundational aspect of liberated Embodied Simulation, a process enabling a more direct and less cognitively mediated access to the world of narrated others and mediating our capacity to share the meaning of their actions, basic motor intentions, feelings, and emotions, thus grounding our identification with and connectedness to narrated characters. Through case studies of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and Dante Alighieri’s Vita nuova, the authors argue that literary texts rely on Feelings of Body communicated by the authors to their readers, and, in turn, experienced by readers simulating those experiences through the sensory-motor networks common to human beings.

Sense of agency (SoA) indicates a person's ability to perceive her/his own motor acts as actually being her/his and, through them, to exert control over the course of external events. Disruptions in SoA may profoundly affect the individual's functioning, as observed in several neuropsychiatric disorders. This is the first article to systematically review studies that investigated intentional binding (IB), a quantitative proxy for SoA measurement, in neurological and psychiatric patients. Eligible were studies of IB involving patients with neurological and/or psychiatric disorders. We included 15 studies involving 692 individuals. Risk of bias was low throughout studies. Abnormally increased action‐outcome binding was found in schizophrenia and in patients with Parkinson's disease taking dopaminergic medications or reporting impulsive‐compulsive behaviors. A decreased IB effect was observed in Tourette's disorder and functional movement disorders, whereas increased action‐outcome binding was found in patients with the cortico‐basal syndrome. The extent of IB deviation from healthy control values correlated with the severity of symptoms in several disorders. Inconsistent effects were found for autism spectrum disorders, anorexia nervosa, and borderline personality disorder. Findings pave the way for treatments specifically targeting SoA in neuropsychiatric disorders where IB is altered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]