**2. The paradigmatic shift**

We will begin with the concepts that articulate the reflexive logic of this study that approaches the phenomena of cognition from an evolutionary systemic look that comes from the Theory of Autopoiesis based on the "Theory of the Biology of Knowledge" of Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela [1], which brings about a radical paradigmatic shift that is produced with the evidence that the internal operation of living beings -in their environment- is of a circular and recursive nature. This implies that the cognitive processes are referred to the changes of the internal states, and not to the changes of the external environment within which it is observed, showing how the world they live in, in a present, is the result of an epigenic process and not of a processing of information captured from the environment. This explains the phylogenetic and ontogenetic origin of the cognitive processes of human beings that - in their relationship with others - give rise to the domain of language, which makes possible their capacity to reflect, and with it, to perceive themselves differentiating proprioceptively from others and from the world of objects that they learn to perceive in their culture.

Both authors define that "knowledge is effective action, that is, operational effectiveness in the domain of existence of the living being" [1], specifying that this domain is constituted, moment by moment, in the physiological operation of the living body in interaction with the environment in which it exists. They show how in organisms with motility this operation of a cognitive nature determines the

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*Proprioceptive Perception: An Emergence of the Interaction of Body and Language*

its environment, are constituted in the evolution of the species.

organization that defines its identity as a species.

permanent reciprocal interaction with it.

tions, moment by moment.

space in which behavior is observed.

relations of reciprocal character, that is, bidirectional.

changes of state of the individual in relation to the conservation of his living identity in a changing environment, and not to changes in the environment, revealing that effective behaviors do not respond to the perception of an image or representa-

Therefore, we will address the explanation of how the first unicellular organisms of the planet autonomously maintain effective or adequate behaviors for their conservation within the environment from which they arise and with which they maintain a continuous interactional relationship, a fact that reveals their knowledge of how to live in a changing environment, thus showing how the cognitive capacities that, as we will see, result from the physiological operation of the organism in its interaction with

This reflection originates with the study of living beings -including human beings- as dynamic autopoietic systems [1]. That is, as living systems that are self-generating, moment by moment, referring to the dynamic organization of molecular relations that constitutes them. This organization remains invariant in a flow of internal structural changes within a changing environment, with which it maintains a continuous interactive relationship of reciprocal nature, preserving the

Thus, in the operation of this organization, a network of interactive relationships between molecular components that produce the components that constitute the - metabolic network - is constituted, moment by moment, maintaining an operation of a circular and recursive nature that generates autonomy, which determines, moment by moment, the appropriate internal states for the conservation of the molecular organization that constitutes them as living beings within the changing environment in which they exist [2]. In this way, the dynamics of this molecular system constitute a physiological operation of cognitive nature, that maintains the orders of the interactional relations between the molecules, making possible the existence of a living unity that differentiates from the environment that it exists in a

Therefore, all living bodies, with or without nervous system, are autonomous self-referential beings, with the ability to determine the appropriate behaviors for their living conservation. So, the changes of states of the organism that trigger internal or external disturbances to themselves, are specified by their internal autopoietic operation and not by the changes of the external environment; environment with which it maintains a continuous of recurrent and recursive interactive

Thus, the reciprocal character of the mutual interactions between the living body/niche generates in the epigenesis of the individuals a congruence or correspondence between the structures of both spaces constituting a structural coupling, in which both spaces -delimited by the edge of the organism- modulate with each other without there being control of one over the other, since each domain specifies the structural changes triggered by the disturbances produced in their mutual interac-

In this way, in this study, the living body/niche dynamic interactional system is considered as the unit of study of an individual's behavior; two subsystems that constitute the operational domains of behavior: a) the body domain: constituted in the operation of the physiological dynamics that constitute it, and b) the relational domain: generative of the interactional dynamics that are generated in its operation within the environment in which the individual as a whole exists, an interactional

"…the phenomena of the structural dynamics of a living system and the phenomena that occur in its interactions in the medium, are phenomena of different kind that occur in phenomenal domains that do not intersect, and cannot be

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95461*

tion of the state of an external world.

#### *Proprioceptive Perception: An Emergence of the Interaction of Body and Language DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95461*

changes of state of the individual in relation to the conservation of his living identity in a changing environment, and not to changes in the environment, revealing that effective behaviors do not respond to the perception of an image or representation of the state of an external world.

Therefore, we will address the explanation of how the first unicellular organisms of the planet autonomously maintain effective or adequate behaviors for their conservation within the environment from which they arise and with which they maintain a continuous interactional relationship, a fact that reveals their knowledge of how to live in a changing environment, thus showing how the cognitive capacities that, as we will see, result from the physiological operation of the organism in its interaction with its environment, are constituted in the evolution of the species.

This reflection originates with the study of living beings -including human beings- as dynamic autopoietic systems [1]. That is, as living systems that are self-generating, moment by moment, referring to the dynamic organization of molecular relations that constitutes them. This organization remains invariant in a flow of internal structural changes within a changing environment, with which it maintains a continuous interactive relationship of reciprocal nature, preserving the organization that defines its identity as a species.

Thus, in the operation of this organization, a network of interactive relationships between molecular components that produce the components that constitute the - metabolic network - is constituted, moment by moment, maintaining an operation of a circular and recursive nature that generates autonomy, which determines, moment by moment, the appropriate internal states for the conservation of the molecular organization that constitutes them as living beings within the changing environment in which they exist [2]. In this way, the dynamics of this molecular system constitute a physiological operation of cognitive nature, that maintains the orders of the interactional relations between the molecules, making possible the existence of a living unity that differentiates from the environment that it exists in a permanent reciprocal interaction with it.

Therefore, all living bodies, with or without nervous system, are autonomous self-referential beings, with the ability to determine the appropriate behaviors for their living conservation. So, the changes of states of the organism that trigger internal or external disturbances to themselves, are specified by their internal autopoietic operation and not by the changes of the external environment; environment with which it maintains a continuous of recurrent and recursive interactive relations of reciprocal character, that is, bidirectional.

Thus, the reciprocal character of the mutual interactions between the living body/niche generates in the epigenesis of the individuals a congruence or correspondence between the structures of both spaces constituting a structural coupling, in which both spaces -delimited by the edge of the organism- modulate with each other without there being control of one over the other, since each domain specifies the structural changes triggered by the disturbances produced in their mutual interactions, moment by moment.

In this way, in this study, the living body/niche dynamic interactional system is considered as the unit of study of an individual's behavior; two subsystems that constitute the operational domains of behavior: a) the body domain: constituted in the operation of the physiological dynamics that constitute it, and b) the relational domain: generative of the interactional dynamics that are generated in its operation within the environment in which the individual as a whole exists, an interactional space in which behavior is observed.

"…the phenomena of the structural dynamics of a living system and the phenomena that occur in its interactions in the medium, are phenomena of different kind that occur in phenomenal domains that do not intersect, and cannot be

*Proprioception*

space in which it exists.

and with the environment in which they exist, moment by moment; and how the proprioceptive experience modulates -in a present- his emotional states in relation to the immediate interactive context maintaining physiological states of the organism congruent to the present circumstances, conserving in adaptation his life in the

To answer these questions, we will first situate ourselves from a dynamic systemic perspective that reformulates the concept of effective behavior and cognition that derive from the classical vision of neuroscience and psychology based on the Cartesian reductionist functionalist paradigm. This last one understands cognitive phenomena from a representational perspective, where cognition is conceived as an information processing that results in a faithful representation of an external world that operates independently of the organism that perceives it. This has kept science in search of an understanding of the principles and laws of an objective external world, which explains why in the study of perception, there is a prevalence over the exteroceptive senses of an individual (vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste), ignoring the incidence in the sensory integration of the proprioceptive and interoceptive senses. In second place, we will approach how in the origin of the first living organisms are constituted the generative sensorimotor mechanisms of the movements of the effective behaviors that reveal the knowledge of the living beings, to know that it is source and origin of the way of knowing proper of the *Homo sapiens*: the reflection. Next, we will explain how the synchronization between attentional reflexive movements and corporal movements gives origin to the proprioceptive perception that makes possible the differentiation of the external and internal space of the individual. And following with the phenomena of the emotions, we will explain the characteristics of the ways of moving of a human being and how the proprioceptive perception influences the modulation of these in relation to the conservation of the well-being of the organism in its structural coupling with the environment. It explains the concept of emotional plasticity and the type of

practices that restore it, showing evidence of its effectiveness.

world of objects that they learn to perceive in their culture.

We will begin with the concepts that articulate the reflexive logic of this study that approaches the phenomena of cognition from an evolutionary systemic look that comes from the Theory of Autopoiesis based on the "Theory of the Biology of Knowledge" of Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela [1], which brings about a radical paradigmatic shift that is produced with the evidence that the internal operation of living beings -in their environment- is of a circular and recursive nature. This implies that the cognitive processes are referred to the changes of the internal states, and not to the changes of the external environment within which it is observed, showing how the world they live in, in a present, is the result of an epigenic process and not of a processing of information captured from the environment. This explains the phylogenetic and ontogenetic origin of the cognitive processes of human beings that - in their relationship with others - give rise to the domain of language, which makes possible their capacity to reflect, and with it, to perceive themselves differentiating proprioceptively from others and from the

Both authors define that "knowledge is effective action, that is, operational effectiveness in the domain of existence of the living being" [1], specifying that this domain is constituted, moment by moment, in the physiological operation of the living body in interaction with the environment in which it exists. They show how in organisms with motility this operation of a cognitive nature determines the

**2. The paradigmatic shift**

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expressed one in terms of the other". Thus, "[…] behavior of a living system is the interactional and relational dynamics through which a living system realizes its living as a particular kind of organism in its domain of existence […] the structural dynamics of the living systems triggers structural changes in the medium, and at the same time the structural changes that take place in the medium as behavior takes place trigger structural changes in the living system. As living takes place in the continuous conservation of autopoiesis and adaptation by the living system through its behavior, the behavior of the living system operates as the guide in the conservation or loss of the living through the coupling of the structural dynamics of the living system and the medium." [3].

In this way "what we call behavior when observing changes in the states of the organism in its environment corresponds to the description of the movements of the organism in an environment that we point out." [1]. This means that this environment does not correspond to the world in which the individual lives.

The implication of evidencing the autonomy of living systems, brings a radical epistemological paradigmatic shift by modifying the conception of living beings, since an autonomous system means that it defines itself through mechanisms of self-organization. Therefore, this characterization of living beings modifies fundamental beliefs of the traditional Cartesian, representational and functionalist paradigm that conceives living systems as heteronomous systems, that is, that they are defined - in their conformation and behaviors - through external mechanisms of control (input–output), therefore their world is treated as if it were independent and represented [4]. In this way, classical science defines behavior as responses to external stimuli, being the environment the one that defines the course of structural changes of the living bodies, thus living bodies have no incidence in their evolutionary transformations, for which they would be heteronomous systems. This is exemplified in the following statement by H. Curtis and N. Barnes:

"The characteristics of the behavior of an organism -its sensitivity to particular stimuli and patterns of response to those stimuli- are the product of natural selection, just as much as the shape of the teeth or the feedback loop that regulates blood pressure. Therefore, natural selection is the force or active agent that determines the course of evolution of the identity of living beings, being these mechanical organisms lacking the autonomy to specify their behavior and structural changes in relation to the conservation of the molecular organization that defines their living identity, and actively specify the niche in which they carry out their living through their behavior, conserving themselves in adaptation in a structural coupling with the environment." [5].

The reformulation of the generative mechanisms of the effective behaviors leads in turn to a reinterpretation of the concept of cognition, which traditionally has been considered as an information processing in which the sensorial surfaces transduce the stimuli of the environment, sending the information to neuronal structures that process it, generating a representation of the state of the world in which the individual is, from which the system selects the effector motor patterns for the appropriate behaviors to the individual's situations, which result from phylogenetic and ontogenetic learning of an adaptive nature.

The autopoietic theory originates a reformulation of the generative mechanisms of effective or adequate behavior of living beings, as well as the evolutionary processes that give rise to the diversity of anatomo-physiological structures that define the identity of living species. The autonomy of living bodies makes them an active agent in the transformation of themselves, as well as of the environment in which they are found; a phenomenon that occurs in the epigenesis of living bodies. The evolution of the history of structural links between organisms and their environment generates reciprocal transformations that lead to the maintenance of a congruence

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**3. The origin of the autonomous movement and the lived world**

The sequences of movements of an organism in coupling with the environment that are observed in its effective behaviors result from "a very specific correlation coordination between sensory surfaces and motor surfaces, …sensory-motor correlations that originate from the first living beings through metabolic transformations proper to the cellular unit" [1], which in the recurrence and recursiveness of reciprocal interactions with the environment are constituted in sensory-motor learnings that specify ways of interacting in the regularities of changes in the environment, keeping invariant the molecular relations that define the molecular organization

By way of example, the feeding behavior of an amoeba about to ingest a protozoon is described by means of the extension of a pseudopod. Pseudopods are expansions or digitations of protoplasm associated to structural changes in the local physicochemical constitution of the cellular membrane. How does the global and unified movement of the animal occur in its structural coupling with an environment in which it is also structurally coupled to it? "The presence of the protozoon generates a concentration of substance in the environment that is capable of interacting with the amoeba's membrane, triggering changes in protoplasmic consistencies, resulting in the formation of a pseudopod. The pseudopod in turn produces changes in the position of the moving animal, thus modifying the number of molecules in the medium that interact with its membrane. This cycle is repeated, and the sequence of displacements of the amoeba, therefore, is produced through the maintenance of an internal correlation between the degree of modification of its membrane and those protoplasmic modifications that we see as pseudopods, a recurrent and invariant correlation is established between a disturbed or sensory area of the organism and an area capable of producing motor displacements, which

maintains invariant a set of internal relations in the amoeba." [1].

world that operates independently of the organism's operation.

We can see, on the one hand, how the continuous structural coupling of the organism with the environment generates the congruence between the structural changes of both, and on the other hand, how the movements of the organism generate correlations of specific structural changes between sensory and motor surfaces that establish interactive relations of reciprocity. These relationships are not instructive, they generate a continuous structural change in which the change of one is in relation to the change of the other, moment by moment. Thus, the changes in the motor surfaces generate, in turn, changes in the sensory surfaces, sensorimotor dynamics generating permanent movements that are observed in the proper behavior of an organism in its environment, a process that, as we see, does not consist of a process of capturing and processing information from an external

In this way, in the physiological operation of the organism, the modulation of processes of sensorimotor activity is generated, constituting a synchronic coordination of structural changes between local zones of the organism that modulate with each other, resulting in a distributed modulation mechanism from which a state of

in the structural changes of both, a fact that makes possible the conservation in adaptation of the organisms. Traditionally, this congruence has been interpreted as the result of effective behaviors in their adaptation to the environment, which result from responses to the stimuli of an external world that operates independently of the operation of the organism, considering them instructive and unidirectional interactions; thus, in the evolution of the organism, the adaptive behaviors would be

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95461*

determining the structure and identity of the species.

that preserves the living unity in adaptation.

*Proprioceptive Perception: An Emergence of the Interaction of Body and Language DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95461*

in the structural changes of both, a fact that makes possible the conservation in adaptation of the organisms. Traditionally, this congruence has been interpreted as the result of effective behaviors in their adaptation to the environment, which result from responses to the stimuli of an external world that operates independently of the operation of the organism, considering them instructive and unidirectional interactions; thus, in the evolution of the organism, the adaptive behaviors would be determining the structure and identity of the species.
