T
he vagus nerve is the longest of the cranial nerves. Its name is derived from Latin, meaning ‘wandering’. True to its name, the vagus nerve wanders down from the brain stem through organs in the thorax and abdomen. Stephanie’s work explores the relationship between the vagus nerve and interoception (our internal bodily awareness), and how this is interconnected with anxiety.
After engaging with Dr Jenny Murphy and her research, Steph became intrigued by the role that subjective interpretation plays when analysing frightening signals from our bodies, “…it seems like anxious individuals pay more attention to their bodily signals than others, and are more likely to interpret them negatively, but whether they differ in terms of accuracy of perception remains unclear as results are mixed”.
Biography
Stephanie Amaterstein is an Australian tattooist and surrealist painter, exploring the boundaries of the seen and unseen. She grew up in the Victorian bushland, before moving to Melbourne city at the age of 15 to study at the Victorian College of the Arts. Heavily influenced by her love of science fiction, dark surrealism and all things weird and wonderful, Stephanie was quickly drawn to the world of tattooing. She began her career as a tattooist in 2010.
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