1 - (SYM 85) Augmenting Mindfulness to Enhance Interoception with Breath-synchronized Vibration

  Background: DIssociative individuals with trauma histories have well-characterized difficulties in perceiving their bodies, due, in part, to decreased reactivity in brain networks responsible for attention and interoception. As emotion perception is dependent on interoception, these deficits can interfere with therapeutic modalities which require attention to internal processes including both traditional CBT and third-wave techniques such as mindfulness meditation. 

  Methods: Using pre/post neuroimaging with fMRI in a four-arm two site RCT design with N=145 participants with trauma and high levels of dissociation, we examine whether taking advantage of preserved  exteroceptive capabilities via technologies which link vibration to physiological processes have the potential to enhance neural mechanisms of attention and interoception, and thus elements of mindfulness, particularly breath-focus. The sample strongly oversamples black women, who have been systematically neglected in psychotherapy research, and for whom interoceptive deficits are particularly pronounced. 

  

Results: Feelings of numb-ness and dissociation decreased systematically in the trial, with vibration-augmented breath focus uniquely addressing neural attentional mechanisms.

  

Conclusions: It is possible to use technologies that link physiological reactions to extroceptve stimulation as a “prosthetic” for interoception during a mindfulness based intervention. The result is both change in primary clinical features as well as rekindling of interoceptive processes.