Probing the posture with machine learning provides physiological evidence supporting the enhanced body awareness hypothesis in trait mindfulness
Frontiers in Physiology September 2, 2022 Charles Verdonk, Marion Trousselard, Takfarinas Medani et al.
Body awareness is thought to be a cognitive mechanism of mindfulness, but neuroscience evidence is limited. Postural control during quiet standing relies on body cues, especially with eyes closed. Postural signals were recorded from 156 healthy participants standing quietly with eyes closed and eyes open. Each participant completed the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory. Machine learning models were trained to estimate mindfulness scores and classify participants as mindful or non-mindful from their postural signals. Models using eyes-closed data performed much better than those using eyes-open data. These findings provide the first physiological evidence supporting the hypothesis that mindfulness involves enhanced body awareness.