Evaluating Multivariate MRI Maps of Body Awareness

Exclusion Criteria

• •Participants who endorse:
• •1. being smokers;
• •2. chronic or recurrent bronchial or pulmonary disease requiring medical attention;
• •3. having been diagnosed with sleep apnea;
• •4. a history of an upper or lower respiratory tract infection in the 6 weeks preceding the study;
• •5. pregnancy;
• •6. diseases that restrain chest or abdominal breathing, such as ankylosing spondylitis, systemic lupus, chronic abdominal pain, chronic liver or kidney diseases,
• •7. can not fit comfortably in the MRI scanner.
• •8. potentially confounding medical conditions that impact breathing (e.g.,asthma, congestive heart failure, and emphysema that are not well-controlled), could impact attention to the breath (e.g., chronic pain conditions that are not well-managed), or impact neural functioning (e.g., multiple sclerosis, neurological diseases, brain injury);
• •9. currently experiencing a mental health condition (e.g., anxiety, depression, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder) or past severe mental illness such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or severe substance abuse disorder.
• •10. use of psychotropic medications in the past year
• •11. current use of medications that potentially can affect the respiratory system or the interoceptive focus in the past week (including narcotics, benzodiazepines); if the research assistant is unclear about a specific medication, the physician on the study (Dr. Rick Hecht) will be asked and will decide;
• •12. health behaviors that could affect respiration (e.g., DSM-IV diagnosis of substance use disorder, use of major recreational drugs in the past year-heroin, cocaine, etc.);
• •13. any high-level training in a field that could impact body awareness and is not associated with mind-body practices (e.g., professional athletes or dancers, marathon runners);
• •14. lack of ability to speak and read English fluently (instructions and questionnaires will be in English only and foreign language translations will have to await future studies);