Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome and CLN2S@Sapienza, Rome, Italy.
IRCCS, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
PeerJ. 2023 Aug 24;11:e15382. doi: 10.7717/peerj.15382. eCollection 2023.
The conscious processing of body signals influences higher-order psychological and cognitive functions, including self-awareness. Dysfunctions in the processing of these signals has been connected to neurological and psychiatric disorders characterized by altered states of self-consciousness. Studies indicate that perceiving the body through interoceptive signals (, from internal organs such as heartbeat and breathing) is distinct from perceiving the body through exteroceptive signals (, by relying on visual, tactile and olfactory cues). While questionnaires are available for assessing interoception, there are no validated self-report instruments for measuring bodily exterception. To fill this gap, we performed three studies to develop and validate a novel scale designed to assess bodily self-consciousness based on the processing of exteroceptive bodily signals. Exploratory factor analysis (Study 1, = 302) led to an 18-item questionnaire comprised of four factors. We called this instrument Exteroceptive Body Awareness questionnaire (EBA-q). Confirmatory factor analysis (Study 2, = 184) run on a second sample showed an acceptable fit for a bifactor model, suggesting researchers may use the questionnaire as a unidimensional scale reflecting exteroceptive bodily self-consciousness, or use each of its four sub-scales, reflecting "visuo-tactile body awareness", "spatial coordination", "awareness of body changes" and "awareness of clothing fit". Overall EBA-q showed good internal consistency. Convergent and divergent validity were assessed cross-validation with existing body awareness questionnaires (Study 3, = 366) and behavioral measures (Study 3, = 64) of exteroceptive and interoceptive bodily self-consciousness. Research applications are discussed within a multi-faceted model of exteroception and interoception as distinct, but at the same time interconnected, dimensions of bodily self-consciousness.
身体信号的有意识处理会影响到更高阶的心理和认知功能，包括自我意识。这些信号处理功能的障碍与以自我意识改变为特征的神经和精神障碍有关。研究表明，通过内感受信号（来自心跳和呼吸等内部器官）来感知身体与通过外感受信号（依赖视觉、触觉和嗅觉线索）来感知身体是不同的。虽然有用于评估内感受的问卷，但没有经过验证的用于测量身体外感受的自我报告工具。为了填补这一空白，我们进行了三项研究，开发和验证了一种新的量表，该量表基于对外感受身体信号的处理来评估身体自我意识。探索性因素分析（研究 1，n=302）得出了一个由四个因素组成的 18 项问卷。我们将这个工具称为外感受身体意识问卷（EBA-q）。在第二个样本上进行的验证性因素分析（研究 2，n=184）显示，双因素模型具有可接受的拟合度，这表明研究人员可以将问卷用作反映外感受身体自我意识的单维量表，也可以使用其四个子量表之一，分别反映“视触觉身体意识”、“空间协调”、“身体变化意识”和“衣服合身意识”。总体而言，EBA-q 具有良好的内部一致性。在与现有的身体意识问卷（研究 3，n=366）和外感受和内感受身体自我意识的行为测量（研究 3，n=64）的交叉验证中评估了聚合和发散效度。在一个将外感受和内感受视为身体自我意识的不同但同时相互关联的维度的多方面模型中讨论了研究应用。
