A paper by Dr. Maria Alemany-González, a postdoctoral researcher, has been published in iScience.

Dr. Maria Alemany-González, a postdoctoral researcher at Sony Computer Science Laboratories (Sony CSL), together with researcher Ai Koizumi and Professor Hiroshi Imamizu from the University of Tokyo, has published new findings on the relationship between body movements and fear learning and alleviation.

In this study, the research team tracked participants’ body motions during virtual fear conditioning and active-avoidance training. The results revealed that distinct body movement patterns emerge through fear conditioning, and that embodied avoidance actions can effectively suppress the return of fear after 24 hours. These findings suggest that embodiment-based approaches may offer promising avenues for interventions targeting traumatic memories.

This paper was published in iScience.

Title: Fear in action: Fear conditioning and alleviation through body movements
Journal: iScience, Volume 27, Issue 3, March 15, 2024
Authors: Maria Alemany-González, Martijn E. Wokke, Toshinori Chiba, Kimitaka Nakazawa, Hiroshi Imamizu, Ai Koizumi
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.109099