Members of the Body and Self Group investigate the multisensory representation of the body and the bodily self by using the methods of cognitive neuroscience.
Our interests cover investigations of bodily self-consciousness, tactile perception, peripersonal space, cardiac and gastric interoception, body image, alexithymia and pain.
We also study how bodily self-consciousness varies across development, in autism, in pregnancy, and in some neurological, psychiatric and pain disorders.
The Body and Self Group is part of the ARU Centre for Mind and Behaviour.
We offer a Psychology PhD. We have also identified a range of innovative research project opportunities for postgraduate researchers.
For more information, contact Dr Jane Aspell at [email protected] or Dr Flavia Cardini at [email protected]
Discover more about our members on their profile pages
Todd, J., Cardellicchio, P., Swami, V., Cardini, F. & Aspell, J.E., 2021. Weaker implicit interoception is associated with more negative body image: Evidence from gastric-alpha phase amplitude coupling and the heartbeat evoked potential. Cortex (in press)
Todd, J., Barron, D., Aspell, J.E., Kheng Lin Toh, E., Syahirah Zahari, H., Azzatunnisak Mohd Khatib, N. & Swami, V., 2021. Examining Relationships between Interoceptive Awareness and Body Image in a non-Western context: A study with Malaysian adults. International Perspectives in Psychology (in press).
Heydrich, L., Walker, F, Blättler, L., Herbelin, B. & Blanke, O. & Aspell, J.E., 2021. Interoception and empathy impact perspective taking. Frontiers in Psychology – Perception Science 11, 4016.
Todd, J., Aspell, J.E., Barron, D., Kheng Lin Toh, E., Syahirah Zahari, H., Azzatunnisak Mohd Khatib, N., Laughton, R. & Swami, V., 2020. Greater Gastric Interoception is Associated with More Positive Body Image: Evidence from Adults in Malaysia and the United Kingdom, Body Image, 34, pp.101-111.
Todd, J., Barron, D., Aspell, J.E., Kheng Lin Toh, E., Syahirah Zahari, H., Azzatunnisak Mohd Khatib, N. & Swami, V., 2020. Translation and Validation of a Bahasa Malaysia (Malay) Version of the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA), PLOS One, 15(4): e0231048.
Todd, J., Hina, F. & Aspell, J.E., (2020) Reduction of auditory input improves performance on the heartbeat tracking task, but does not necessarily enhance interoception. Experimental Brain Research (in press). doi: 10.1007/s00221-020-05740-y
Esfahlani, S.S., Butt, J. and Shirvani, H., 2019. Fusion of artificial intelligence in neuro-rehabilitation video games. IEEE Access, 7, pp.102617-102627.
Esfahlani, S.S., Shirvani, H. and Esfahlani, K.S., 2019, October. Video Game and Fuzzy Logic to Improve Amblyopia and Convergence Insufficiency. In IECON 2019-45th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (Vol. 1, pp.179-185).