2024/07/15 by Jessica Eccles, Lisa Quadt, Sarah N. Garfinkel +1 · 1 voice · 7 citations
Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Clinical psychology #Cognitive psychology #Context (archaeology) #Emotional dysregulation #Emotional expression #Feeling #Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research #Hypermobility (travel) #Joint hypermobility #Medicine #Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation #Neuroscience #Physical therapy #Proprioception #Psychiatry #Psychology #Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments #Social psychology
paper · doi:10.1098/rstb.2023.0247
openalex publication_date 2024/07/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Emotional feelings are putatively ascribed to central representation of bodily states in the context of expectation and uncertainty in both internal state and external world. Neurodivergent people are more likely to experience co-occurring mental health challenges, although mechanistic insights underpinning this association are scarce. We therefore undertook a study to test whether imprecise processing of proprioceptive error signals may underlie the connection between neurodivergence and emotional dysregulation. In a cohort of people with complex chronic conditions, including chronic pain/fatigue, and complex trauma, and in a comparison group, we assessed presence of neurodivergence, variant connective tissue manifested through joint hypermobility, and emotional dysregulation. We present a data-informed conceptual model showing that variant connective tissue determines whether proprioceptive surprise is linked with emotional dysregulation in neurodivergent individuals. We suggest that future research in this area may have important clinical implications for the interaction of mental and physical wellbeing in neurodivergent people. This article is part of the theme issue 'Sensing and feeling: an integrative approach to sensory processing and emotional experience'.