Auditory feedback on proprioception increases bodily awareness

Multiple studies have shown the importance of movement and physical exercise like dance for human wellbeing and mental health. Yet, factors influencing proprioception and body awareness in the context of exercise remain largely unexplored. This is mostly due to the lack of tools and techniques to record, manipulate and intervene on body awareness during real-time movements. To this end, we designed FUGA, a wearable device delivering continuous real-time auditory feedback on human gestures. Here we tested whether we could manipulate bodily awareness during physical exercise and dance using auditory feedback on proprioception. Following a within-subject design, we tested the effects of the device using different sounds in three populations of dancers: novice, amateurs and professionals. We found that across populations the wearable had a significant effect on the participant’s rating of feelings of bodily awareness, ​reward, immersion, embodiment, and self-efficacy. We discuss these results in the light of recent theories of predictive coding and active inference, emphasizing the role of action, proprioceptive and auditory sensory feedback in human behavior. Building upon these results, we suggest future studies to explore the potential of auditory proprioceptive feedback for mental health.多项研究已证实，舞蹈类运动与体育锻炼对人类健康福祉与心理健康具有重要意义。然而，在运动场景中影响本体感觉（proprioception）与身体意识的相关因素，目前仍未得到充分探索。这一现状主要源于缺乏可在实时运动过程中记录、调控并干预身体意识的工具与技术手段。为此，我们研发了可穿戴设备FUGA，该设备可针对人体动作提供持续的实时听觉反馈。本研究旨在验证：借助基于本体感觉的听觉反馈，是否可在体育锻炼与舞蹈过程中调控身体意识。本研究采用被试内实验设计（within-subject design），针对新手、业余与专业三类舞者群体，测试了该设备搭配不同声音时的应用效果。研究结果显示，无论舞者群体类别如何，该可穿戴设备均对受试者的身体意识、愉悦感、沉浸感、具身感（embodiment）与自我效能感评分产生了显著影响。我们结合最新的预测编码（predictive coding）与主动推理（active inference）理论对本研究结果展开讨论，并着重阐释了动作、本体感觉与听觉感官反馈在人类行为中的作用。基于上述研究结果，我们建议后续研究可进一步探索听觉本体感觉反馈在心理健康领域的应用潜力。