About this Research Topic
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the top 10 public health concerns with only a third of patients recovering at one-year follow-up. PTSD alters the sense of body ownership (BO), i.e., the perception of one’s own body, feelings, thoughts or actions distinguishing between self and other, but is also associated with the sense of agency (SA), i.e. the feeling of initiating and controlling an action, or the subjective perception of being an agent in the external world, and chronesthesia, i.e., the development of the self-image over time. While the loss of BO has been extensively studied in peritraumatic dissociation and is the main target of trauma therapies, much less attention has been paid to how trauma affects the SA and control over external events in relation with the alterations of temporality. This Research Topic explores the SA in the context of PTSD, its difference with the BO, and its cardinal importance in PTSD symptoms.
When considering trauma from an enactive perspective, the symptoms of PTSD could be understood as attempts to uncover and regain the SA over the causes of the traumatic event. The goal of this Research Topic is to explore the alteration of SA and chronesthesia and its strong correlation with core PTSD symptoms as well as the specificities across the various subtypes of PTSD, whether simple, dissociative, or complex. The Topic also aims to explore possible agency-based therapies and how such embodied interventions could reduce the risk of developing PTSD or improve PTSD treatments by dialoguing with current psychotrauma therapies. For instance, these therapies could be based on new sensorimotor technologies, or neurostimulation techniques, or drug assisted.
Type of manuscripts accepted: reviews, systematic reviews, perspectives, hypothesis and theory, conceptual analysis, case reports, original research, brief research reports, opinion, registered report, study protocol, highlights.
Themes:
1. Specific symptoms of PTSD and their relation to agency
2. Peritraumatic or posttraumatic dissociation and their relation to agency
3. Specific subtypes of PTSD and how agency is differently altered
4. Chronesthesia and its relation to PTSD
5. Enhancing agency for PTSD prevention
6. Enhancing agency for PTSD treatments
7. Agency-based therapies in PTSD
8. Sensorimotor technologies and agency in PTSD
9. Drug assisted therapies and agency in PTSD
10. Neurostimulation techniques and agency in PTSD
When considering trauma from an enactive perspective, the symptoms of PTSD could be understood as attempts to uncover and regain the SA over the causes of the traumatic event. The goal of this Research Topic is to explore the alteration of SA and chronesthesia and its strong correlation with core PTSD symptoms as well as the specificities across the various subtypes of PTSD, whether simple, dissociative, or complex. The Topic also aims to explore possible agency-based therapies and how such embodied interventions could reduce the risk of developing PTSD or improve PTSD treatments by dialoguing with current psychotrauma therapies. For instance, these therapies could be based on new sensorimotor technologies, or neurostimulation techniques, or drug assisted.
Type of manuscripts accepted: reviews, systematic reviews, perspectives, hypothesis and theory, conceptual analysis, case reports, original research, brief research reports, opinion, registered report, study protocol, highlights.
Themes:
1. Specific symptoms of PTSD and their relation to agency
2. Peritraumatic or posttraumatic dissociation and their relation to agency
3. Specific subtypes of PTSD and how agency is differently altered
4. Chronesthesia and its relation to PTSD
5. Enhancing agency for PTSD prevention
6. Enhancing agency for PTSD treatments
7. Agency-based therapies in PTSD
8. Sensorimotor technologies and agency in PTSD
9. Drug assisted therapies and agency in PTSD
10. Neurostimulation techniques and agency in PTSD
Keywords: agency, chronesthesia, posttraumatic stress disorder, enaction, body ownership, dissociation, augmented therapies
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
