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Chapter 62 - Mind–Body Interactions
Book chapter

Chapter 62 - Mind–Body Interactions

Calvin Carter and Daniel Tranel
Primer on the Autonomic Nervous System, pp.295-299
Elsevier Inc, Third Edition
2012
DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-386525-0.00062-7

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Abstract

This chapter discusses how mind–body interactions are being utilized to reduce psychological and physiological distress and improve human health. One great avenue for studying mind–body interactions is the brain–gut axis. The brain–gut connection is the likely culprit as both organs are intimately linked via the vagus nerve. Both structures mediate the neuroendocrine and autonomic outputs to the body and the gut via the vagus nerve. People vary in their responses to and ability to cope with emotional events, and individuals have different emotional thresholds which depend on both genetic and environmental factors. African-Americans are more emotionally expressive than European-Americans and Asian-Americans because African-American culture places the greatest value on emotional expression, followed by European-American and lastly Asian-American cultures. The skin conductance response (SCR) is a remarkably powerful and informative psychophysiological index. Because SCRs are relatively easy to measure, and provide reliable indices of a wide variety of psychological states and processes, SCRs have been arguably the most popular aspect of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity used to study human cognition and emotion.
emotion skin conductance decision-making psychophysiology electrogastrogram somatic marker hypothesis Crohn’s disease

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