How the Body Knows Its Mind_The Surprising Power of the Physical Environment to Influence How You Think and Feel

by Sian Beilock

  20. D. Casasanto et al., “The QWERTY Effect: How Multiple Language Production Shapes Our Lexicons,” paper submitted to the 6th Conference of the International Society for Gesture Studies. San Diego, CA. July 8–11, 2014.

  21. S. L. Beilock and L. E. Holt, “Embodied Preference Judgments: Can Likeability Be Driven by the Motor System?” Psychological Science 18 (2007): 51–57. In the actual experiment, the letter pairs that were easier to type were sometimes presented on the left side of the computer screen and sometimes on the right side.

  22. S. Topolinski, “I 5683 You: Dialing Phone Numbers on Cell Phones Activates Key-Concordant Concepts,” Psychological Science (2011), doi:10.1177/0956797610397668.

  23. For an overview of the end-state-comfort idea, see D. A. Rosenbaum et al., “Plans for Grasping Objects,” in M. L. Latash and F. Lestienne (eds.), Motor Control & Learning (New York: Springer, 2006); W. Zhang, and D. A. Rosenbaum, “Experimental Brain Research. Planning for Manual Positioning: The End-State Comfort Effect for Manual Abduction-Adduction,” Experimental Brain Research 184 (2008): 383–89; D. A. Rosenbaum, K. M. Chapman, C. J. Coelho, L. Gong, and B. E. Studenka, “Choosing Actions,” Frontiers in Psychology 4 (2013), doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00273.

  24. D. J. Weiss et al., “Monkey See, Monkey Plan, Monkey Do: The End-State Comfort Effect in Cotton-Top Tamarins (Saguinus oedipus),” Psychological Science 18 (2007): 1063–68.

  25. R. Ping, S. Dhillon, and S. L. Beilock, “Reach for What You Like: The Body’s Role in Shaping Preferences,” Emotion Review 1 (2009): 140–50.

  26. Starting in 2008, see the Coca-Cola Company news release: http://web.archive.org/web/20110101092057/ and http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/presscenter/nr_20080613_2l_contour.html. See also “Flat Sales Send Pepsi to No. 3, behind Coke, Diet Coke,” Daily Record (MD), March 17, 2011, http://thedailyrecord.com/2011/03/17/flat-sales-send-pepsi-to-no-3-behind-coke-diet-coke/.

  27. Chuck Salter, “Mauro Porcini Leaves 3M for Pepsico,” Fast Company Magazine, September 2012, http://www.fastcompany.com/3000005/mauro-porcini-leaves-3m-pepsico.

  28. B. Van Den Bergh et al., “Embodied Myopia,” Journal of Marketing Research 48 (2011): 1033–44. The basket condition was a small sample in the naturalistic supermarket observation study; most people opted for carts.

  Chapter 6

  1. For overviews, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Joseph_Gall; http://www.victorianweb.org/science/phrenology; http://www.historyofphrenology.org.uk/overview.htm; D. P. Schultz and S. E. Schultz, A Modern History of Psychology, 10th edition (Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2013).

  2. For a review, see K. M. Galotti, Cognitive Psychology: In and Out of the Laboratory, 3rd edition (Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2004). See also P. C. Wason, “Reasoning about a Rule,” Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 20 (1968): 273–81.

  3. O. Hauk, I. Johnsrude, and F. Pulvermüller, “Somatotopic Representation of Action Words in Human Motor and Premotor Cortex,” Neuron 41 (2004): 301–7.

  4. A. M. Glenberg and M. P. Kaschak, “Grounding Language in Action,” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 9 (2002): 558–65.

  5. R. A. Zwaan and L. J. Taylor, “Seeing, Acting, Understanding: Motor Resonance in Language Comprehension,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 135 (2006): 1–11. People were quicker at reading verbs that matched the action they were preforming (e.g., turning a knob counterclockwise led to faster reading of the verb in the sentence “The marathon runner eagerly opened the water bottle”).

  6. This patient’s story is adapted from reports of patients presenting with motor neuron disease symptoms. See T. H. Bak and J. R. Hodges, “The Effects of Motor Neurone Disease on Language: Further Evidence,” Brain and Language 89 (2004): 354–61. See also http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/motor_neuron_diseases/detail_motor_neuron_diseases.htm.

  7. See the website of the International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations, http://www.alsmndalliance.org/.

  8. T. H. Bak et al., “Selective Impairment of Verb Processing Associated with Pathological Changes in Brodmann Areas 44 and 45 in the Motor Neurone Disease-Dementia-Aphasia Syndrome,” Brain 124 (2001): 103–20.

  9. We have a similar map for sensory areas of the brain that represents the sensory information coming from various body parts.

  10. W. Penfield and T. Rasmussen, The Cerebral Cortex of Man (New York: Macmillan, 1950).

  11. Figure adapted from O. Hauk, I. Johnsrude, and F. Pulvermüller, “Somatotopic Representation of Action Words in Human Motor and Premotor Cortex,” Neuron 41 (2004): 301–7. Reprinted with permission.

  12. V. S. Ramachandran, “Phantom Limbs, Neglect Syndromes, Repressed Memories, and Freudian Psychology,” International Review of Neurobiology 37 (1994): 291–333; V. S. Ramachandran and S. Blakeslee, Phantoms in the Brain: Human Nature and the Architecture of the Mind (London: Fourth Estate, 1998); V. S. Ramachandran, Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind (New York: Harper, 1999). Feet, toes, and genitals are mapped next to each other in the brain’s body map of the sensory cortex.

  13. See P. M. Di Noto, “The Hermunculus: What is Known about the Representation of the Female Body in the Brain?” Cerebral Cortex (2012), doi:10.1093/cercor/bhs005.

  14. For a review, see F. Pulvermüller and M. L. Berthier, “Aphasia Therapy on a Neuroscience Basis,” Aphasiology 22 (2008): 563–99. For an alternate view, an interested reader can see A. Caramazza et al., “Embodied Cognition and Mirror Neurons: A Critical Assessment,” Annual Review of Neuroscience 37 (2014): 1–15.

  15. L. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations (Oxford: Blackwell, 1953), quoted in F. Pulvermüller and M. L. Berthier, “Aphasia Therapy on a Neuroscience Basis,” Aphasiology 22 (2008): 563–99.

  16. See World Health Organization website, http://www.who.int/topics/cerebrovascular_accident/en/; also the CDC, http://www.cdc.gov/stroke/ and http://www.strokecenter.org/patients/about-stroke/stroke-statistics/.

  17. See F. Pulvermüller and M. L. Berthier, “Aphasia Therapy on a Neuroscience Basis,” Aphasiology 22 (2008): 563–99. There are other important principles of aphasia therapy, such as training schedule. See also F. Pulvermüller et al., “Therapy-Related Reorganization of Language in Both Hemispheres of Patients with Chronic Aphasia,” Neuroimage 28 (2005): 481–89.

  18. P. Adank, P. Hagoort, and H. Bekkering, “Imitation Improves Language Comprehension,” Psychological Science (2010), doi:10.1177/0956797610389192.

  19. Example taken from V. Gallese and G. Lakoff, “The Brain’s Concepts: The Role of the Sensory-Motor System in Conceptual Knowledge,” Cognitive Neuropsychology 22 (2005): 455–79.

  20. For a review, see A. M. Glenberg, M. Sato, L. Cattaneo, L. Riggio, D. Palombo, and G. Buccino, “Processing Abstract Language Modulates Motor System Activity,” Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 61 (2008), 905–19. In many of these studies, participants pushed a button close to them and one far away rather than pulled or pushed a lever. See also L. W. Barsalou, “Grounded Cognition,” Annual Review of Psychology 59 (2008): 617–45.

  21. L. Boroditsky and M. Ramscar, “The Roles of Body and Mind in Abstract Thought,” Psychological Science 13 (2002): 185–89.

  22. K. L. Miles, L. K. Nind, and N. Macrae, “Moving Through Time,” Psychological Science 21 (2010), doi:10.1177/0956797609359333.

  23. S. L. Beilock, I. M. Lyons, A. Mattarella-Micke, H. C. Nusbaum, and S. L. Small, “Sports Experience Changes the Neural Processing of Action Language,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 105 (2008): 13269–73. The players listened to the reading of sentences about hockey games rather than an actual radio broadcast.

  24. J. Atwood, Capoeira: A Martial Art and a Cultural Tradition (New York: Rosen, 1999).

  25. B. Calvo-Merino et al., “Action Observation and Acquired Motor Skills: An fMRI Study with Expert Dancers,” Cerebral Cortex 15 (2005): 1243–49; B. Calvo-Merino et al., “Seeing or Doing? Influence of Visual and Motor Familiarity in Action Observation,” Cur
rent Biology 16 (2006), 1905–10.

  26. S. M. Aglioti et al., “Action Anticipation and Motor Resonance in Elite Basketball Players,” Nature Neuroscience (2008), doi:10.1038 /nn.2182. MEPs, or motor-evoked potentials, were used to measure corticospinal activation during observation of basketball shots.

  27. B. Abernethy and D. G. Russell, “The Relationship between Expertise and Visual Search Strategy in a Racquet Sport,” Human Movement Science 6 (1987): 283–319.

  28. For an overview of forward models, see K. Yarrow, P. Brown, and J. W. Krakauer, “Inside the Brain of an Elite Athlete: The Neural Processes that Support High Achievement in Sports,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 10 (2009): 585–96. For a review of how humans are able to predict and understand the actions of others, see N. Sebanz and G. Knoblich, “Prediction in Joint Action: What, When, and Where,” Topics in Cognitive Science 1 (2009): 353–67.

  29. For more on the idea that athletes don’t always have conscious access to what they are doing, see S. L. Beilock, Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal about Getting It Right When You Have To (New York: Free Press, 2010).

  Chapter 7

  1. The reader should note that the idea of shared neural representations does not necessarily imply mirror neurons. Moreover, it is likely that the brain circuits involved in empathy have more general functions than simply detecting physical pain and social distress (in one’s self or others). Specifically, any potential threat likely elicits activation in these neural regions. For more information, see J. Decety, “The Neuroevolution of Empathy and Caring for Others: Why It Matters for Morality,” in J. Decety and Y. Christen (eds.), New Frontiers in Social Neuroscience, Research and Perspectives in Neurosciences 21 (2014), doi:10.1007/978-3-319-02904-7_8.

  2. P. Ruby and J. Decety, “How Would You Feel versus How Do You Think She Would Feel? A Neuroimaging Study of Perspective Taking with Social Emotions,” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 16 (2004): 988–99.

  3. B. Wicker, C. Keysers, J. Plailly, J.-P. Royet, V. Gallese, and G. Rizzolatti, “Both of Us Disgusted in My Insula: The Common Neural Basis of Seeing and Feeling Disgust,” Neuron 40 (2003): 655–64. For a review, see P. M. Niedenthal et al., “Embodiment in Attitudes, Social Perception, and Emotion,” Personality and Social Psychology Review 9 (2005): 184–211.

  4. For a review, see J. Decety and M. Meyer, “From Emotion Resonance to Empathic Understanding: A Social Developmental Neuroscience Account,” Development and Psychopathology 20 (2008): 1053–80.

  5. T. Field, B. Healy, S. Goldstein, and M. Guthertz, “Behavior-State Matching and Synchrony in Mother-Infant Interactions of Non-Depressed versus Depressed Dyads,” Developmental Psychology 26 (1990): 7–14.

  6. For a review of Niedenthal and colleagues’ findings, see P. M. Niedenthal et al., “When Did Her Smile Drop? Facial Mimicry and the Influences of Emotional State on the Detection of Change in Emotional Expression,” Cognition and Emotion 15 (2001): 853–64; P. M. Niedenthal, “Embodying Emotion,” Science 316 (2007): 1002–5.

  7. R. B. Zajonc, P. K. Adelmann, S. T. Murphy, and P. M. Niedenthal, “Convergence in the Physical Appearance of Spouses,” Motivation and Emotion 11 (1987): 335–46.

  8. Specifically, brain areas including the somatosensory cortex, anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior medial cingulate cortex, and periaqueductal gray. See J. Decety et al., “Physicians Down-Regulate Their Pain Empathy Response: An Event-Related Brain Potential Study,” Neuroimage (2010), doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.01.025.

  9. Specifically prefrontal regions underlying executive functions and self-regulation (dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortex). Y. Cheng et al., “Expertise Modulates the Perception of Pain in Others,” Current Biology 17 (2007): 1708–13.

  10. See G. Ramirez and S. L. Beilock, “Writing about Testing Worries Boosts Exam Performance in the Classroom,” Science 331 (2011), 211–13; K. Kircanski et al., “Feelings into Words: Contributions of Language to Exposure Therapy,” Psychological Science (2012), doi:10.1177/0956797612443830.

  11. R. Saxe, “Theory of Mind (Neural Basis),” Vol. 2, 401–10, in Encyclopedia of Consciousness (Oxford: Academic Press, 2009). See also J. Decety and M. Meyer, “From Emotion Resonance to Empathetic Understanding: A Social Developmental Neuroscience Account,” Development and Psychopathology 20 (2008): 1053–80.

  12. N. Barnea-Goraly, H. Kwon, V. Menon, S. Eliez, L. Lotspeich, and A. L. Reiss, “White Matter Structure in Autism: Preliminary Evidence from Diffusion Tensor Imaging,” Biological Psychiatry 55 (2004): 323–26.

  13. Autism spectrum disorders (2013), CDC, December 26, http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html.

  14. For a review of this viewpoint, see V. S. Ramachandran and L. M. Oberman, “Broken Mirrors: A Theory of Autism,” Scientific American, 62–69 (2006, November). For an argument against a dysfunctional mirror neuron system being the sole driving force behind autism, see V. Southgate and A. Hamilton, “Unbroken Mirrors: Challenging a Theory of Autism” (2008), doi:10.1016/j.tics.2008.03.005.

  15. For details, see V. S. Ramachandran and L. M. Oberman, “Broken Mirrors: A Theory of Autism,” Scientific American (2006, November): 62–69. See also L. Oberman et al., “Modulation of Mu Suppression in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Response to Familiar or Unfamiliar Stimuli: The Mirror Neuron Hypothesis,” Neuropsychologia 46 (2008): 1558–65. This study revealed that mu suppression was sensitive to the degree of familiarity of the person performing the action participants observed. But also see Y. Fan et al., “Unbroken Mirror Neurons in Autism Spectrum Disorders,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 51 (2010): 981–88. Though they did not find evidence of mu suppression in ASD participants, they did find that more mu suppression to action observation was associated with more communication competence.

  16. J. Pineda et al., “Positive Behavioral and Electrophysiological Changes Following Neurofeedback Training in Children with Autism,” Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders 2 (2008): 557–81. The sample size of this study was small; thus, though intriguing, this work should be considered exploratory.

  17. A. Hamilton, “Reflecting on the Mirror Neuron System in Autism: A Systematic Review of Current Theories,” Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience 3 (2013): 91–105.

  18. See D. J. Greene, “Atypical Neural Networks for Social Orienting in Autism Spectrum Disorders,” NeuroImage 56 (2011): 354–62; J. D. Rudie, “Reduced Functional Integration and Segregation of Distributed Neural Systems Underlying Social and Emotional Information Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorders,” Cerebral Cortex 22 (2012): 1025–37.

  Chapter 8

  1. For more on this viewpoint, see http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/14/wetzstein-tips-on-how-to-love-your-child/.

  2. See H. F. Harlow, “The Nature of Love,” American Psychologist 13 (1958): 673–98; D. Blum, Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection (New York: Basic Books, 2011). Names of monkeys have been changed.

  3. T. K Inagaki and N. I. Eisenberger, “Shared Neural Mechanisms Underlying Social Warmth and Physical Warmth,” Psychological Science (2013), doi:10.1177/0956797613492773.

  4. Y. Kang et al., “Physical Temperature Effects on Trust Behavior: The Role of the Insula,” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 6 (2011): 507–15. The researchers conclude that cold activates insula, and that this activation spreads into areas of the anterior insula, which affects subsequent trust decisions.

  5. C. B. Zhong and G. J. Leonardelli, “Cold and Lonely: Does Social Exclusion Literally Feel Cold?” Psychological Science 19 (2008): 838–42.

  6. H. F. Harlow, “The Nature of Love.” Address of the president at the sixty-sixth annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Washington D. C. American Psychologist 13 (1958): 573–685.

  7. Though there does seem to be an overlap in our psychological and physical gauges of temperature, more work is needed to tease apart exactly what that overlap is. For a discussion as it relates to loneliness and w
arm baths, see http://traitstate.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/whats-the-first-rule-about-john-barghs-data/.

  8. The reader should note that more work is needed to assess the value of these specific activities. In terms of romantic movies, this is true as long as you associate romance movies with psychological warmth; see J. Hong and Y. Sun, “Warm It Up with Love: The Effect of Physical Coldness on Liking of Romance Movies,” Journal of Consumer Research 39 (2011): 293–306.

  9. See N. I. Eisenberger, “The Pain of Social Disconnection: Examining the Shared Neural Underpinnings of Physical and Social Pain,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13 (2012): 421–34; E. Kross et al., “Social Rejection Shares Somatosensory Representations with Physical Pain,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108 (2011): 6270–75. But also see S. Cacioppo et al., “A Quantitative Meta-Analysis of Functional Imaging Studies of Social Rejection,” Scientific Reports 3 (2013): 2027, doi:10.1038 /srep02027 for a discussion of the idea that the neural correlates of social pain are more complex than a simple reliance on the pain matrix.

  10. R. Sapolsky, “This is Your Brain on Metaphors,” New York Times, November 14, 2010, http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/this-is-your-brain-on-metaphors/?_r=0.

  11. For more on this view, see N. I. Eisenberger and M. D. Lieberman, “Why Rejection Hurts: A Common Neural Alarm System for Physical and Social Pain,” Trends in Cognitive Science (2004), doi:10.1016/j.tics.2004.05.010.

  12. N. I. Eisenberger et al., “Does Rejection Hurt? An fMRI Study of Social Exclusion,” Science 302 (2003): 290–92.

  13. C. N. DeWall et al., “Tylenol Reduces Social Pain: Behavioral and Neural Evidence,” Psychological Science 21 (2010): 931–37.

  14. For more on these ideas, see N. Eisenberger and G. Kohlrieser, “Lead with Your Heart, Not Just Your Head,” Harvard Business Review, November 16, 2012, http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/11/are-you-getting-personal-as-a/.