Knowledge of the Stress-Health Link as a Source of Resilience Among Mexicans in the Arizona Borderlands.

Mexicans who migrate to the United States endure significant stressors related to the migration process and social and environmental conditions of life in the United States. Given that chronic stress exposure has been linked to the onset of health conditions, these ecological factors may expose them to increased risk for poor health. However, Mexicans have many positive health outcomes compared to those monitored nationally, making it crucial to understand possible sources of resilience in this population. Here, we investigate Mexicans' lay health knowledge in response to stress as a possible source of health-related resilience. Health knowledge is considered a central facet of practical and traditional knowledge as well as adaptive modes of intelligence and has a tangible impact on health. Using an ethnographically grounded community-based participatory research design informed by the theory of embodiment, our hybrid team of bilingual university and community-based researchers interviewed Mexican-origin residents (N = 30) living in rural southwestern Arizona about how they experienced and responded to stress and incorporated it into their etiological frameworks. Thematic analysis revealed that participants paid close attention to how stress presented itself in their bodies, which informed their understanding of its potentially harmful health impacts and motivated them to employ multiple stress reduction strategies. Our results highlight the breadth of Mexicans' lay health knowledge, thereby challenging dominant narratives about low rates of health literacy in this population. Findings can be harnessed to optimize potential health protective effects in home and community settings as well as to inform preventive and clinical interventions.

Babies in the Corporeal Turn: The Cognitive Embodiment of Early Motor Development and Exploration in the Brazilian Context of Early Childhood Education.

The corporeal turn in developmental psychology has rekindled interest regarding how early motor development contributes to and enhances cognitive development across the first years of life. By highlighting embodied perceptual-motor engagement with the world, embodied cognitive learning emphasizes the importance of experience and perceptual-motor mechanisms in modulating the development of person-environment systems. The field currently calls for research that combines such conceptual frameworks with the complex everyday material and sociocultural landscapes that resource infants' developmental trajectories. We, therefore, aim to connect the conceptual refinement of bodily-anchored exploration to the contextual reality of everyday settings of early childhood education (ECE)-here situated in the Brazilian context-as relevant social and cultural suppliers and modulators of the developmental trajectories of babies. Secondarily, we ponder on the premises of national pedagogical curricula and their role in mediating the quality of experiences and systems of person-environment relations more closely. Cultural-historical psychology, in dialogue with the principles of Ecological Psychology, constitutes the theoretical framework that underpins the microgenetic analyses conducted. By analyzing episodes of exploratory actions of a focal baby situated in the ECE context, we seek to apprehend motor-perceptual indicators of embodied cognitive processing by considering the modes of appropriation entailed in episodes of embodied exploration. We reflect on pedagogical implications considering official national documents of early childhood education. This work contributes by providing complementary insights into the nature of infants' everyday sociocultural embodied experiences and their development in pedagogically oriented settings.

Interoceptive awareness in a clinical setting: the need to bring interoceptive perspectives into clinical evaluation.

Interoceptive awareness (IA) is crucial to understanding mental health. The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) scale, available in approximately 30 languages, has gained global recognition for its research applicability. This review highlights the critical importance of integrating IA evaluation in clinical settings, advocating for the MAIA scale's potential as a screening tool. Through an examination of academic databases, including Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, and J-STOR, our analysis spans seven mental health domains: eating disorders (ED), depression, stress, anxiety, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), chronic pain, and suicide ideation (SI). Thirty-eight studies showed links between several dimensions of IA with different disorders. That is, ED was related to Body Trust and Self-Regulation; anxiety to Body Listening, Emotional Awareness, and Self-Regulation; depression to Noticing and Emotional Awareness; ASD to Trusting, Emotional Awareness, and Noticing; chronic pain to Not-Worrying and Self-Regulation; and SI with Trusting. These insights hold profound implications for both clinical practice and mental health research. Integrating IA assessments into standard clinical protocols has the potential to improve our understanding of pathology, enrich patient care, and enhance therapeutic strategies.

"You can be cured, but cancer never leaves you behind": an interdisciplinary approach into the embodied cancer experiences among adult Colombian childhood/adolescent cancer survivors.

PURPOSE: Childhood or adolescent cancer survivors (CACS) are an understudied population in Colombia and, in general, in Central and South America. Worldwide, studies typically focus on high-income settings while approaching CACS' experiences from a biomedical or psychological perspective. However, both perspectives miss an important aspect of survivorship after childhood or adolescent cancer: the affected individual's subjective experiences of having a disabled body. This qualitative study aimed to explore the embodied experiences of Colombian adults who survived cancer during their childhood or adolescence to better understand how CACS relate to their altered body and world. METHODS: By integrating phenomenological insights and conducting comprehensive life-story interviews, we explored the various ways in which survivors' cancer experiences affect their bodily sense of self-from the acute phase of the disease until well into adulthood. A total of ten life-stories interviews and one focus group were carried out with seven CACS. All participants were survivors of a different type of childhood/adolescent cancer. The results were analyzed thematically, focusing on the embodied aspects of participants' experiences. RESULTS: We developed three main themes regarding the embodied cancer experience among participating CACS: Firstly, participants' body changes because of the cancer and its treatment, which makes them aware of their body. Secondly, they adapt to this experience in different bodily ways. Finally, they carry bodily traces of their cancer experience in the present as well as into the future. CONCLUSIONS: The CACS participating in this study report that their experience with cancer has been embodied throughout their lives, changing their sense of their body and how they relate to it, and leaving traces into the present and their imagined future.

Mézières Method as a practice of embodiment in patients with low back pain: a mixed study.

INTRODUCTION: The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of the Mézières Method (MM) on pain and disability related to low back pain (LBP), compared to a program of heat, massage and exercise, and to understand the meaning of the bodily experience with the MM. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Mixed methods convergent parallel design, combining an equivalent randomized clinical trial with a qualitative phenomenological approach. Sixty-one participants aged 18-65 years with chronic non-specific LBP lasting more than 3 months. Patients were randomized into two groups: the MM group (n = 29) and the comparison group (CG) who received heat, massage plus flexibility and strengthening exercises (n = 31). MM and CG participants underwent 10 one-hour physical therapy sessions over a 5-week period and were evaluated three times: pre-intervention, post-intervention and follow-up at 6 weeks after the end of treatment. RESULTS: Both groups reported positive effects on LBP . MM group showed superior effects in pain relief in the short term (Cohen's D 0.80; p = 0.004). Participants interpreted the interaction with the MM as a teaching-learning process that allowed body awareness. CONCLUSION: Both treatment were similarly beneficial but MM had superior effects on pain in the short term. MM is perceived by the participants as a teaching-learning process focused on body awareness that facilitate effective management of LBP.

Moving beyond the lab: investigating empathy through the Empirical 5E approach.

Empathy is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that plays a crucial role in human social interactions. Recent developments in social neuroscience have provided valuable insights into the neural underpinnings and bodily mechanisms underlying empathy. This methodology often prioritizes precision, replicability, internal validity, and confound control. However, fully understanding the complexity of empathy seems unattainable by solely relying on artificial and controlled laboratory settings, while overlooking a comprehensive view of empathy through an ecological experimental approach. In this article, we propose articulating an integrative theoretical and methodological framework based on the 5E approach (the "E"s stand for embodied, embedded, enacted, emotional, and extended perspectives of empathy), highlighting the relevance of studying empathy as an active interaction between embodied agents, embedded in a shared real-world environment. In addition, we illustrate how a novel multimodal approach including mobile brain and body imaging (MoBi) combined with phenomenological methods, and the implementation of interactive paradigms in a natural context, are adequate procedures to study empathy from the 5E approach. In doing so, we present the Empirical 5E approach (E5E) as an integrative scientific framework to bridge brain/body and phenomenological attributes in an interbody interactive setting. Progressing toward an E5E approach can be crucial to understanding empathy in accordance with the complexity of how it is experienced in the real world.

Understanding Body Resistance in El Salvador: A Qualitative Discussion of a Pilot Program for Embodied Empowerment.

This article evaluates a Body Resistance Program in an urban area of El Salvador. The goal of this program is to facilitate women's reclamation of bodily autonomy and recognition of their shared struggle, thereby laying a foundation for solidarity and structural change around gendered body norms. As a pilot project with limited scope, a key objective is to identify meaningful concepts that address the goals, motivations, and worldviews of Salvadoran participants. This article provides insights into their understandings and experiences of trauma, resistance, and embodied empowerment.

Emotions, Agency, and Materiality: Embodiment of Homophobic Discrimination Amongst Mexican LGBTQ+ Youth.

Embodiment refers to understanding the body as the object and subject of culture, a process that allows an understanding of political, cultural, social, and emotional processes in the assemblage of a particular identity. We describe a qualitative-narrative study utilizing focus groups and interviews in three Mexican cities with 75 LGBTQ+ youth to understand the effects of discrimination and how this impacts subjectivity through embodied affection. Through axial and line-by-line analysis, we describe the process of embodiment through four dimensions: violence, emotions, agency, and materiality. Violence operates as the sediment for LGBTQ+ youth's subjective, social, and political life, and paves the way for particular emotions, such as guilt, shame, fear, sadness, and pain, that directly relates to material aspects such as gender expression and body presentation, beauty standards and a discourse around perversion and promiscuity. Finally, the combination of emotions and materiality prove relevant for certain expressions of agency and resilience.

O percurso constitutivo da ontologia Marxiana-Lukacsiana: apontamentos pertinentes para o debate gnosiológico-epistemológico sobre a corporeidade humana / The path of constitution of the Marxian-Lukacsian ontology: relevance for the gnosiological and epistemological debate on human corporeity / El camino de constitución de la ontología Marxiano-Lukácsiana: relevancia para el debate gnosiológico y epistemológico sobre la corporeidad humana

RESUMO A presente exposição objetiva, através da apresentação do percurso de constituição da ontologia marxiana-lukasciana, extrair considerações iniciais críticas às teorias sociais modernas que são fundamentos teórico-epistemológicos para os estudos sobre a corporeidade humana. Aportado em uma pesquisa doutoral qualitativa de cunho teórico-bibliográfica, centra-se aqui na revisão que Lukács realizou sobre as teorias antiontológicas e aquelas que reivindicavam uma ontologia do ente presentificado no cotidiano. Conclui-se provisoriamente que a detecção dos problemas e limites das abordagens investigadas, em especial, uma noção demasiada abstrata do Ser, possam ser pertinentes para a análise da produção dos estudos sobre a corporeidade desenvolvidos na Educação Física.

ABSTRACT This exposition aims, through the presentation of the path of constitution of the Marxian-Lukascian ontology, to extract initial critical considerations to modern social theories that are theoretical-epistemological foundations for studies on human embodiment. Based on a qualitative doctoral research of a theoretical-bibliographic nature, it focuses here on the review that Lukács carried out on anti-ontological theories and those that claimed an ontology of the being present in everyday life. It is provisionally concluded that the detection of the problems and limits of the investigated approaches, in particular, an overly abstract notion of Being, may be relevant for the analysis of the production of studies on embodiment developed in Physical Education.

RESUMEN Esta exposición pretende, a través de la presentación del camino de constitución de la ontología marxiano-lukasciana, extraer consideraciones críticas iniciales a las teorías sociales modernas que son fundamentos teórico-epistemológicos para los estudios sobre la corporeidad humana. A partir de una investigación doctoral cualitativa de carácter teórico-bibliográfico, se centra aquí en la revisión que Lukács realizó sobre las teorías antiontológicas y aquellas que reivindicaban una ontología del ser presente en la vida cotidiana. Se concluye provisionalmente que la detección de los problemas y límites de los enfoques investigados, en particular, una noción excesivamente abstracta del Ser, puede ser relevante para el análisis de la producción de estudios sobre la corporeidad desarrollados en Educación Física.

Embodiment of a virtual prosthesis through training using an EMG-based human-machine interface: Case series.

Therapeutic strategies capable of inducing and enhancing prosthesis embodiment are a key point for better adaptation to and acceptance of prosthetic limbs. In this study, we developed a training protocol using an EMG-based human-machine interface (HMI) that was applied in the preprosthetic rehabilitation phase of people with amputation. This is a case series with the objective of evaluating the induction and enhancement of the embodiment of a virtual prosthesis. Six men and a woman with unilateral transfemoral traumatic amputation without previous use of prostheses participated in the study. Participants performed a training protocol with the EMG-based HMI, composed of six sessions held twice a week, each lasting 30 mins. This system consisted of myoelectric control of the movements of a virtual prosthesis immersed in a 3D virtual environment. Additionally, vibrotactile stimuli were provided on the participant's back corresponding to the movements performed. Embodiment was investigated from the following set of measurements: skin conductance response (affective measurement), crossmodal congruency effect (spatial perception measurement), ability to control the virtual prosthesis (motor measurement), and reports before and after the training. The increase in the skin conductance response in conditions where the virtual prosthesis was threatened, recalibration of the peripersonal space perception identified by the crossmodal congruency effect, ability to control the virtual prosthesis, and participant reports consistently showed the induction and enhancement of virtual prosthesis embodiment. Therefore, this protocol using EMG-based HMI was shown to be a viable option to achieve and enhance the embodiment of a virtual prosthetic limb.

Determinantes Sociales de la Salud", "Habitus" y "Embodiment" detrás de un IMC elevado. Un análisis social del actual escenario epidemiológico / Social Determinants of Health", "Habitus" and "Embodiment" behind a high BMI. A social analysis of the current epidemiological scenario

El índice de masa corporal (IMC) elevado marcaría hoy una nueva etapa dentro de la transición epidemiológica, siendo posible develar el origen social del nuevo perfil de morbimortalidad. Esta revisión busca integrar diferentes conceptos teóricos para explicar los mecanismos a través de los cuales lo social se incorpora en el individuo, delimitando su comportamiento en salud y con ello, su estado nutricional. Las estructuras que representan los determinantes sociales de la salud operarían de manera sistemáticamente distinta sobre las personas, generando posiciones más o menos ventajosas dentro del campo de juego sanitario. Este patrón traduce una realidad que se encarna (embodiment) de manera inconsciente y duradera a través de un habitus, favoreciendo prácticas sociales diferenciadas que terminan por construir clases de cuerpos como expresión biológica de la desigualdad. La toma de decisiones estratégicas en salud dependerá de capacidades y libertades individuales primeramente restringidas por aquellos contextos sociales, entendiéndose estos como las causas estructurales de la salud poblacional(AU)

A high body mass index (BMI) would characterize a new stage in the epidemiological transition, making it possible to reveal the social origin of the new morbidity and mortality burden. This review seeks to integrate different theoretical concepts to explain the mechanisms through which the social is incorporated into the individual, delimiting their health behavior and with it, their nutritional status. The structures that represent the social determinants of health would operate systematically differently on different social groups, generating positions that are more or less advantageous in the playing field of health. This pattern translates a reality embodied unconsciously and long-lasting through a habitus, favoring differing social practices that result in the construction of bodily classes as a biological expression of social inequality. Strategic decision-making in health will depend on individual capacities and freedoms, which are firstly restricted by those social contexts, being those understood as the structural causes of population health(AU)

Educación Corporizada para la Convivencia / Embodied Education for Coexistence

Resumen En este artículo propongo defender una educación para la convivencia desde edades muy tempranas que (1) parta de una comprensión correcta de la naturaleza corporal, activa y afectiva del ser humano; (2) entienda lo indispensable que es implementar pedagogías alternativas y novedosas que promuevan una educación basada en la utilización del cuerpo entero en las actividades de enseñanza/aprendizaje; y (3) confíe e integre en sus prácticas los resultados de investigaciones empíricas hechas a partir de bases teóricas robustas. El énfasis estará puesto en la necesidad de implementar metodologías y pedagogías novedosas y creativas, basadas en algunos postulados de la fenomenología, así como en algunas hipótesis de los enfoques contemporáneos de cognición corporizada y situada.

Abstract In this article I propose to defend an education for coexistence from an early age that (1) departs from a correct understanding of the bodily, active, and affective nature of the human being; (2) understand the indispensability of implementing alternative and novel pedagogies that promote education based on the use of the whole body in teaching / learning activities; and (3) trust and integrate the results of empirical research based on robust theoretical bases into their practices. The emphasis will be put on the need to implement novel and creative methodologies and pedagogies based on some postulates of phenomenology, as well as in some hypotheses of contemporary approaches of embodied and situated cognition.

Ambiguous Loss and Embodied Grief Related to Mexican Migrant Disappearances.

Since the 1990s, thousands of Latin Americans have died or disappeared along the US-Mexico border, following the funneling of migration through remote desert regions. The families of missing migrants face long-term "ambiguous loss," a lived experience in which a loved one is physically absent but psychologically present. Mexican relatives of the missing in Arizona and Sonora report that these losses produce deep emotional suffering along a timeline - worrying about the crossing, learning of the disappearance, beginning to search, and finally, coping with the long-term impacts of unknowing. Close relatives experience embodied health effects including headaches, insomnia, anxiety, depression, and chronic disease.

"I have no reason not to be happy": The social and bodily conditions of positive aging for Latin-American men in Mexico.

CONTEXT: Latin-American countries are faced with the challenge of trying to adapt to an aging population, which is exacerbated by the unequal access to income through social security. Previous research from Mexico has focused on the negative consequences of aging in contexts of social adversity. OBJECTIVES: To explore, describe, and characterize the lived experience of old age in Mexican retired men who, despite having diverse medical conditions and meager funds in retirement, led independent and fairly fulfilling lives. METHODS: An in-depth idiographic analysis was conducted following the experiential methodology of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Ten participants (aged 65-81) were interviewed. RESULTS: Two superordinate themes emerged as the subjective conditions for a positive experience in old age: (1) the conservation of social agency, and (2) the preservation of a strong bodily identity. Participants from different occupations prior to retirement depicted contrasting narratives. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived financial security, despite modest means, was the underlying condition upon which subjective experiences of old age was based. The results show that in countries like Mexico, there is a possibility to reimagine old age as a fulfilling stage in life.

The biohabitus of scarcity: bio-social dispositions and the "obesity epidemic" in Mexico.

In this article, we explore the potential of Warin et al.'s concept of biohabitus (a set of embodied biological and social dispositions) as a conceptual tool for the understanding of mechanisms behind the "obesity epidemic." Elaborating on this concept, we argue that a context of food scarcity gives rise to a biohabitus geared to energy-saving, expressed in both biological (the thrifty genotype/phenotype hypotheses) and symbolic dispositions (Bourdieu's "taste of necessity"), and the interaction between this type of biohabitus and changes in the food-related environment results in increased body mass index. We exemplify the use of this framework by applying it to the case of Mexico, a middle-income Latin American country with one of the highest prevalences of obesity worldwide. The example shows how the concept of biohabitus can help researchers move beyond disciplinary explanations, towards a more complex understanding of the conjunction of social and biological processes that result in differential patterns of health and disease.

A corporeidade de católicos da renovação carismática: uma análise das técnicas corporais / Embodiment for catholics of the charismatic renewal movement: an analysis based on body techniques / La corporalidad de católicos de la renovación carismático: un análisis de técnicas corporales

O objetivo do artigo é compreender a corporeidade de jovens católicos da Renovação Carismática, considerando as técnicas corporais em contextos rituais. O aporte teórico foi subsidiado por Mauss (2003), Csordas (2008), Maués (2000), Pereira (2009) e Sofiati (2009). A pesquisa, de inspiração etnográfica, utilizou como procedimentos a observação direta e entrevista empregadas junto aos jovens do Grupo de Oração Ágape da Paróquia Sagrada Família de Goiânia/GO/Brasil. Os resultados indicam que as técnicas corporais identificadas e interpretadas se mostram como forma de orar com o corpo. Conclui-se que cada técnica corporal tem significado singular (imitação prestigiosa), evidenciando a eficácia do contato com o sagrado, numa contínua relação entre corpo e espiritualidade.

Our aim was to understand the embodiment of youth belonging to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, considering the body techniques in ritual contexts. The theoretical contribution was based on Mauss (2003), Csordas (2008), Maués (2000), Pereira (2009) and Sofiati (2009). This study was ethnographically inspired and used direct observation and interviews with a Prayer Group called Agape, from the Sagrada Família Parish of Goiânia/GO/Brazil. The results indicate that the body techniques identified and interpreted are shown as a way of praying with the body. It is concluded that each body technique has a singular meaning (prestigious imitation), evidencing the effectiveness of the contact with the sacred, in a continuous relationship between body and spirituality.

El objetivo es comprender la corporeidad de jóvenes católicos de la Renovación Carismática, considerando las técnicas corporales en contextos rituales. El aporte teórico fue subsidiado por Mauss (2003), Csordas (2008), Maués (2000), Pereira (2009) y Sofiati (2009). La investigación, de inspiración etnográfica, utilizó como procedimientos la observación directa y entrevista empleadas junto a los jóvenes del Grupo de Oración Ágape de la Paroquia Sagrada Familia de Goiânia/GO/Brasil. Los resultados indican que las técnicas corporales se muestran como forma de orar con el cuerpo. Se concluye que cada técnica corporal tiene un significado singular (imitación prestigiosa), evidenciando la eficacia del contacto con lo sagrado, en una continua relación entre cuerpo y espiritualidad.

The Understanding of Visual Metaphors by the Congenitally Blind.

Results from a narrow set of empirical studies suggest that blind individuals' comprehension of metaphorical expressions does not differ from that of sighted participants. However, prominent accounts of metaphor comprehension yield different predictions about the blind's ability to comprehend visual metaphors. While conceptual metaphor theory leads to predicting that blind individuals should lag behind their sighted peers in making sense of this particular kind of utterances, from traditional accounts of analogical reasoning it follows that blind individuals' ability to comprehend the literal meaning of visual concepts might be sufficient to support their metaphorical application. In Experiment 1, 20 sighted and 20 congenitally blind participants were asked to select the most appropriate meaning for visual, grasping and filler metaphorical expressions. Results failed to reveal group differences for any type of metaphorical expressions. In order to implement a more stringent test of blind individuals' ability to understand visual metaphors, in Experiment 2 blind and sighted participants were presented with very novel figurative expressions, as indicated by low or no occurrence in the "Google" corpus. In line with the results of Experiment 1, blind participants' comprehension of visual metaphors was both high in absolute terms and comparable to that of sighted participants. We advance some speculations about the mechanisms by which blind individuals comprehend visual metaphors and we discuss the implications of these results for current theories of metaphor.

Household fear of deportation in relation to chronic stressors and salivary proinflammatory cytokines in Mexican-origin families post-SB 1070.

Sociologists recognize that immigration enforcement policies are forms of institutionalized racism that can produce adverse health effects in both undocumented and documented Latinos and Mexican-origin persons in the United States. Despite this important advancement, little research examines the relationship between fear of immigration enforcement and biobehavioral health in mixed-status Mexican-origin families. This study applies an embodiment of racism approach to examine how household fear of deportation (FOD) is related to differences in salivary proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1 ß , IL-6, IL-8, and TNF α ) in healthy Mexican-origin families with at least one immigrant, living in Phoenix, AZ. Participants were 111 individuals (n=46 adults, 72% female; n=65 children, 49% female) from 30 low-income, mixed-status families. During a home visit, anthropometric measures and saliva were collected from each family member and a household survey was administered. Saliva was assayed for salivary IL-1 ß , IL-6, IL-8, and TNF α . Random effects multilevel structural equation models estimated the relationship between household FOD and a salivary proinflammatory cytokine latent variable between families, while controlling for other chronic stressors (economic/occupational, immigration, parental, and family conflict). Household FOD ( ß =0.68, p=0.04) and family conflict chronic stress ( ß =1.96, p=0.03) were strongly related to elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines between families. These results were consistent in non-mixed and mixed-status families. Future research is needed to characterize what aspects of living with an undocumented family member shape the physical health outcomes of persons with authorized status or US-citizenship.