Camila Valenzuela-Moguillansky, Alejandro Reyes-Reyes, María I. Gaete
Abstract
Fibromyalgia is a widespread chronic pain disease characterized by generalized musculoskeletal pain and fatigue. It substantially affects patients' relationship with their bodies and quality of life, but few studies have investigated the relationship between pain and body awareness in fibromyalgia. We examined exteroceptive and interoceptive aspects of body awareness in 30 women with fibromyalgia and 29 control participants. Exteroceptive body awareness was assessed by a body-scaled action-anticipation task in which participants estimated whether they could pass through apertures of different widths. Interoceptive sensitivity (IS) was assessed by a heartbeat detection task where participants counted their heartbeats during different time intervals. Interoceptive awareness was assessed by the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA). The "passability ratio" (the aperture size for a 50% positive response rate, divided by shoulder width), assessed by the body-scaled action-anticipation task, was higher for fibromyalgia participants, indicating disrupted exteroceptive awareness. Overestimating body size correlated positively with pain and its impact on functionality, but not with pain intensity. There was no difference in IS between groups. Fibromyalgia patients exhibited a higher tendency to note bodily sensations and decreased body confidence. In addition, the passability ratio and IS score correlated negatively across the whole sample, suggesting an inverse relationship between exteroceptive and interoceptive body awareness. There was a lower tendency to actively listen to the body for insight, with higher passability ratios across the whole sample. Based on our results and building on the fear-avoidance model, we outline a proposal that highlights possible interactions between exteroceptive and interoceptive body awareness and pain. Movement based contemplative practices that target sensory-motor integration and foster non-judgmental reconnection with bodily sensations are suggested to improve body confidence, functionality, and quality of life.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 12 September 2023.
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#7,629,677
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Outputs from Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
#2,970
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#112,979
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Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
#77
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Altmetric has tracked 26,139,724 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 69th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,795 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 14.9. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 61% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 188 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 57% of its contemporaries.
