Effects of interoception on older adult's body representation

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K20867
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 10:Psychology and related fields
• Research Institution: Kumamoto University
• Principal Investigator: Teramoto Wataru 熊本大学, 大学院人文社会科学研究部(文), 教授 (30509089)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-07-30 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 実験心理学 / 身体感覚 / 内受容感覚 / 加齢

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study conducted psychophysical experiments on body position perception and an online survey on age-related changes in interoception in order to clarify the influence of interoception on the formation and update process of body representations in older adults. The results revealed that: (1) contrary to previous findings, interoception does not necessarily decline with age, (2) interoception is involved in the formation and update process of body representations regardless of age, and (3) somato-motor function may be involved in interoception, although this is a self-evaluation. Since this study was conducted with relatively high-functioning older adults, we believe that similar investigations with a wide range of older adults in the future will lead to the development of efficient and effective virtual reality intervention programs that are useful for improving the body representations of older adults.

Free Research Field

知覚心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

高齢期の心的機能低下への対策は，認知症や危険運転などの高齢者に関連した社会問題を解決するために重要である。本研究では，この心的機能低下には，内受容感覚機能の低下と，それに伴う脳内の身体表象の歪みが関与していると考えて検討を行った。その結果，年齢に関わらず身体表象の形成・更新過程に内受容感覚が関与している一方で，内受容感覚機能低下だけでは高齢期の身体表象形成・更新過程の特徴はとらえきれるものではないことが明らかになった。今後はこのデータをもとに幅広い高齢者層を対象にして検討を行うことによって高齢者の身体表象の改善に有用な訓練プログラム開発へとつながると考えられる。