@article{ref1,
title="Uncomfortably numb: new evidence for suppressed emotional reactivity in response to body-threats in those predisposed to sub-clinical dissociative experiences",
journal="Cognitive neuropsychiatry",
year="2016",
author="Dewe, Hayley and Watson, Derrick G. and Braithwaite, Jason J.",
volume="21",
number="5",
pages="377-401",
abstract="INTRODUCTION: Depersonalisation and derealisation disorders refer to feelings of detachment and dissociation from one's &quot;self&quot; or surroundings. A reduced sense of self (or &quot;presence&quot;) and emotional &quot;numbness&quot; is thought to be mediated by aberrant emotional processing due to biases in self-referent multi-sensory integration. This emotional &quot;numbing&quot; is often accompanied by suppressed autonomic arousal to emotionally salient stimuli. <br><br>METHODS: 118 participants completed the Cambridge Depersonalisation scale [Sierra, & Berrios, 2000. The Cambridge Depersonalisation Scale: A new instrument for the measurement of depersonalisation. Psychiatry Research, 93, 153-164)] as an index of dissociative anomalous experience. Participants took part in a novel &quot;Implied Body-Threat Illusion&quot; task; a pantomimed injection procedure conducted directly onto their real body (hand). Objective psychophysiological data were recorded via standardised threat-related skin conductance responses and finger temperature measures. <br><br>RESULTS: Individuals predisposed to depersonalisation/derealisation revealed suppressed skin conductance responses towards the pantomimed body-threat. Although the task revealed a reliable reduction in finger temperature as a fear response, this reduction was not reliably associated with measures of dissociative experience. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: The present findings significantly extend previous research by revealing emotional suppression via a more direct body-threat task, even for sub-clinical groups. The findings are discussed within probabilistic and predictive coding frameworks of multi-sensory integration underlying a coherent sense of self.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1354-6805",
doi="10.1080/13546805.2016.1212703",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2016.1212703"
}