The embodied and social self: insights on body image and body schema from neurological conditions

2021 ◽  
pp. 229-243
Author(s):  
Jonathan Cole
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
The Body ◽  
Sensory Loss ◽  
Social Self ◽  
Facial Disfigurement ◽  
The Social ◽  
Neurological Illnesses

In neurological illnesses, the body may present itself to perception in ways which allows insights into the concepts of body image and body schema. Three such conditions are explored. From those who live with spinal cord injury, paralysed and insentient from the neck down, aspects of the importance of the body in one’s sense of self are revealed. Some also describe a coming to terms with their altered bodies. When considering the body image, its adaptability and this reconciliation to a new normal should be considered. Studies on acquired severe sensory loss explore how conscious control, at the body image level, may partially replace the deafferented body schema. There is little evidence, however, for these subjects extending access to previously non-conscious motor schema. Lastly, some narratives from those with congenital absence of movement of facial muscles describe reduced emotional experience and felt embodiment as children. These can be developed as young adults, through shared social interactions. The importance of the social in elaboration of the body image is further implicit in a consideration of the stigma associated with facial disfigurement. Others’ responses to one’s body are crucial in developing our body image and sense of self.

scholarly journals Visual self-motion feedback affects the sense of self in virtual reality

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aubrieann Schettler ◽  
Ian Holstead ◽  
John Turri ◽  
Michael Barnett-Cowan
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Visual Feedback ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Biological Sex ◽  
Self Motion

AbstractWe assessed how self-motion affects the visual representation of the self. We constructed a novel virtual reality experiment that systematically varied an avatar’s motion and also biological sex. Participants were presented with pairs of avatars that visually represented the participant (“self avatar”), or another person (“opposite avatar”). Avatar motion either corresponded with the participant’s motion, or was decoupled from the participant’s motion. The results show that participants identified with i) “self avatars” over “opposite avatars”, ii) avatars moving congruently with self-motion over incongruent motion, and importantly iii) identification with the “opposite avatar” over the “self avatar” when the opposite avatar’s motion was congruent with self-motion. Our results suggest that both self-motion and biological sex are relevant to the body schema and body image and that congruent bottom-up visual feedback of self-motion is particularly important for the sense of self and capable of overriding top-down self-identification factors such as biological sex.

The space of the body schema: putting the schema in movement

2021 ◽  
pp. 18-32
Author(s):  
David Morris
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
New Perspective

This chapter contributes to conceptual debates about the body schema and body image by studying the body schema’s role in shaping our sense of lived space. Contra ‘body-in-brain’ or representational views of the body schema as a centralized controller, the chapter supports ‘body-in-world’ views by showing how the body schema is itself of space, founded and actualized in schematizing movements of a body in the world. This suggests that capacities for, and divergences between, a body schema versus a body image emerge when body-schematizing activity runs into resistances or demands from environmental supports, including other perceiving bodies and the social sphere, over various timescales, e.g., of evolution, development, skill, and habit acquisition, as well as cultural formations. The chapter draws on phenomenological and psychological results concerning our sense of space in cases of directly touching and moving with things, but also in cases where movements coupled with surroundings through light (via our eyes or technological devices) yield a sense of distal things. These are complemented by conceptual insights from recent evolutionary-comparative approaches to the philosophy of mind and body, which give a new perspective on just where movement control arises in bodies.

scholarly journals Visual Self-Motion Feedback Affects the Sense of Self in Virtual Reality

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Aubrieann Schettler ◽  
Ian Holstead ◽  
John Turri ◽  
Michael Barnett-Cowan
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Visual Feedback ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Biological Sex ◽  
Self Motion

Abstract We assessed how self-motion affects the visual representation of the self. We constructed a novel virtual-reality experiment that systematically varied an avatar’s motion and also biological sex. Participants were presented with pairs of avatars that visually represented the participant (‘self-avatar’), or another person (‘opposite avatar’). Avatar motion either corresponded with the participant’s motion, or was decoupled from the participant’s motion. The results show that participants identified with (i) ‘self-avatars’ over ‘opposite-avatars’, (ii) avatars moving congruently with self-motion over incongruent motion, and importantly (iii) with the ‘opposite avatar’ over the ‘self-avatar’ when the opposite avatar’s motion was congruent with self-motion. Our results suggest that both self-motion and biological sex are relevant to the body schema and body image and that congruent bottom-up visual feedback of self-motion is particularly important for the sense of self and capable of overriding top-down self-identification factors such as biological sex.

The Role of Hand Size in the Fake-Hand Illusion Paradigm

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p5853 ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (10) ◽  
pp. 1547-1554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Pavani ◽  
Massimiliano Zampini
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Body Representation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Video Image ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Statistical Correlations ◽  
Hand Size ◽  
Visible Hand

When a hand (either real or fake) is stimulated in synchrony with our own hand concealed from view, the felt position of our own hand can be biased toward the location of the seen hand. This intriguing phenomenon relies on the brain's ability to detect statistical correlations in the multisensory inputs (ie visual, tactile, and proprioceptive), but it is also modulated by the pre-existing representation of one's own body. Nonetheless, researchers appear to have accepted the assumption that the size of the seen hand does not matter for this illusion to occur. Here we used a real-time video image of the participant's own hand to elicit the illusion, but we varied the hand size in the video image so that the seen hand was either reduced, veridical, or enlarged in comparison to the participant's own hand. The results showed that visible-hand size modulated the illusion, which was present for veridical and enlarged images of the hand, but absent when the visible hand was reduced. These findings indicate that very specific aspects of our own body image (ie hand size) can constrain the multisensory modulation of the body schema highlighted by the fake-hand illusion paradigm. In addition, they suggest an asymmetric tendency to acknowledge enlarged (but not reduced) images of body parts within our body representation.

Cognitive-Affective Neuroscience of Depersonalization

CNS Spectrums ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 467-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan J. Stein ◽  
Daphne Simeon
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Processing ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
The Body ◽  
Affective Neuroscience ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Limbic Structures ◽  
Molecular Systems ◽  
Depersonalization Disorder

ABSTRACTDepersonalization disorder (DPD) is characterized by a subjective sense of detachment from one's own being and a sense of unreality. An examination of the psychobiology of depersonalization symptoms may be useful in understanding the cognitive-affective neuroscience of embodiment. DPD may be mediated by neurocircuitry and neurotransmitters involved in the integration of sensory processing and of the body schema, and in the mediation of emotional experience and the identification of feelings. For example, DPD has been found to involve autonomic blunting, deactivation of sub-cortical structures, and disturbances in molecular systems in such circuitry. An evolutionary perspective suggests that attenuation of emotional responses, mediated by deactivation of limbic structures, may sometimes be advantageous in response to inescapable stress.

Body Schema and Body Image

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Body Dysmorphic Disorder ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Neural Activities ◽  
Body Shapes ◽  
Influential Book ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors

Body schema refers to the system of sensory-motor functions that enables control of the position of body parts in space, without conscious awareness of those parts. Body image refers to a conscious representation of the way the body appears—a set of conscious perceptions, affective attitudes, and beliefs pertaining to one’s own bodily image. In 2005, Shaun Gallagher published an influential book entitled ‘How the Body Shapes the Mind’. This book not only defined both body schema (BS) and body image (BI), but also explored the complicated relationship between the two. The book also established the idea that there is a double dissociation, whereby body schema and body image refer to two different, but closely related, systems. Given that many kinds of pathological cases can be described in terms of body schema and body image (phantom limbs, asomatognosia, apraxia, schizophrenia, anorexia, depersonalization, and body dysmorphic disorder, among others), we might expect to find a growing consensus about these concepts and the relevant neural activities connected to these systems. Instead, an examination of the scientific literature reveals continued ambiguity and disagreement. This volume brings together leading experts from the fields of philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry in a lively and productive dialogue. It explores fundamental questions about the relationship between body schema and body image, and addresses ongoing debates about the role of the brain and the role of social and cultural factors in our understanding of embodiment.

Body Image Satisfaction and its Relationship to the Reasons Why Young Women  are Undergoing Cosmetic Surgery from their Perspectives: الرضا عن صورة الجسد وعلاقته بأسباب إقبال الشابات على إجراء عمليات التجميل من وجهة نظرهن

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (46) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Fahad Joudeh, Suhaila Mahmood Banat
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Marital Status ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Cosmetic Surgery ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Body Image Satisfaction ◽  
Economic Level ◽  
Level Of Satisfaction ◽  
The Social

This study aimed to reveal the level of satisfaction of the body image and its relationship to the reasons why young women are undergoing cosmetic surgery from their perspectives. The sample of the study consisted of (150) young women who visit private beauty clinic. Two scales were developed: a scale of the level of satisfaction of body image consisting of (34) item and a scale of the reasons of why young women are undergoing cosmetic surgery consisting of (39) item. After insured the scales' validity and reliability, the descriptive-correlational approach was used. The results of the study showed that the level of body image was moderate, and for the reasons of why young women are undergoing cosmetic surgery; the psychological dimension came in the first rank, While the vocational dimension came in the last rank. The results also found a positive correlation between body image satisfaction and the reasons why young women are undergoing cosmetic surgery. The results did not show differences in the level of satisfaction of the body image to the variable of marital status and economic level. While the results showed dissatisfaction with the body image due to age in favor of the category (31-40) and the educational qualification in favor of a diploma degree and below. As for the reasons for the young women undergoing cosmetic surgery, it was found that there were no statistically significant differences in the marital status and educational qualification variables, also, there were differences due to age only on the social dimension and in favor of (31 - 40), and there were differences attributed to the economic level in the social dimension in favor of the category (500-1000). Considering the results, the researcher recommended reinforcing the body image through nurture and guidance to raise the level of satisfaction with body image and to conduct more surveys, qualitative, and experimental studies related to cosmetic surgery other than the target category in this study, and for both sexes.

scholarly journals Walking with Neuropathic Pain: Paradoxical Shift from Burden to Support?

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-3 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Kopsky ◽  
Jan M. Keppel Hesselink ◽  
Roberto Casale
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
Neuropathic Pain ◽  
Unusual Case ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
The Body ◽  
Sensory Loss ◽  
Pain Patient ◽  
Rehabilitation Programs ◽  
Cord Injury

Baclofen 5% cream can be used for the treatment of neuropathic pain. We describe an unusual case of a neuropathic pain patient with spinal cord injury. A 71-year-old woman with a partial spinal cord injury lesion at L4 complained of tingling, pins and needles, and burning in her legs. She scored her pain as 6 before adding baclofen 5% cream to her pain medication (pregabalin 450 mg, acetaminophen 3000 mg, and diclofenac 150 mg daily). One month later she experienced complete pain relief, though experienced increased difficulties in walking, leading to frequent falls. Her steadier walking without stumbling and falling was more important to her than pain reduction. Thus she decided to stop using baclofen. This unusual case report discusses two important issues that relate to pain medicine and rehabilitation in patients with painful spinal cord lesions: (1) the presence of wide areas of sensory loss “covered” by the presence of painful sensations and (2) pathological sensations that can be used and integrated in the body schema to create an improved spatiovisual orientation and thus mobility. Both these aspects have to be taken into account when treating pain and design rehabilitation programs.

Cultural scripting of body parts for emotions

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 27-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix K. Ameka
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Cultural Construction ◽  
West African ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
African Language ◽  
Moving Body ◽  
Three Body ◽  
Red Eyes

Different languages present a variety of ways of talking about emotional experience. Very commonly, feelings are described through the use of ‘body image constructions’ in which they are associated with processes in, or states of, specific body parts. The emotions and the body parts that are thought to be their locus and the kind of activity associated with these body parts vary cross-culturally. This study focuses on the meaning of three ‘body image constructions’ used to describe feelings similar to, but also different from, English ‘jealousy’, ‘envy’, and ‘covetousness’ in the West African language Ewe. It is demonstrated that a ‘moving body’, a pychologised eye, and red eyes are scripted for these feelings. It is argued that the expressions are not figurative and that their semantics provide good clues to understanding the cultural construction of emotions both emotions and the body.

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