The Impact of a Short Body–Focused Meditation on Body Ownership and Interoceptive Abilities

A brief body-focused meditation did not directly alter the sense of body ownership as measured by the rubber hand illusion, but it did interact with interoceptive awareness. Participants with high interoceptive awareness—the correspondence between actual heartbeat detection and self-reported confidence—experienced a weaker rubber hand illusion after the meditation. Across all participants, mood improved and interoceptive accuracy and sensibility increased over time, regardless of whether they meditated or listened to an audiobook. The findings suggest that meta-awareness of internal bodily signals may help protect against manipulations of body boundaries.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract Objectives The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of a brief body-focused meditation on body ownership, while considering interoceptive abilities, dissociative experiences, mood, trait mindfulness, and meditation experience. Method The sample consisted of 111 healthy students who participated in a randomized controlled trial and either listened to a 20-min meditation or audio-book reading. Before and after the intervention, the rubber hand illusion and a heartbeat detection task were completed. The rubber hand illusion consisted of a synchronous and an asynchronous condition and the illusion intensity was measured using a questionnaire and by assessing the proprioceptive drift. In the heartbeat detection task, participants were instructed to count their heartbeats, so interoceptive accuracy of their counting, confidence in their own abilities (interoceptive sensibility), and the correspondence between both measures (interoceptive awareness) could be determined. Results The intervention type had no effect on mood and interoceptive abilities. Independent of intervention type, valence increased, arousal decreased, and interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive sensibility improved over time. Additionally, trait mindfulness and interoceptive accuracy were negatively related to the subjective rubber hand illusion intensity. There was not a mere effect of the intervention on the rubber hand illusion, but an interaction of synchrony, time, group, and interoceptive awareness was found for both measures, showing that only participants with high interoceptive awareness experienced a weaker illusion following the meditation. Conclusions We concluded that meta-awareness of interoceptive abilities may help protecting oneself against manipulations of the body boundaries. Preregistration Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/6dvh5).