Body schema and body image disturbances in individuals with multiple sclerosis

2021 ◽  
pp. 285-300
Author(s):  
Britt Normann

This chapter argues that the concepts of body schema and body image can deepen our understanding of individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) and can advance our conception of the physiotherapeutic process. Experiences of agency and body ownership are closely connected to body schema and body image and relate directly to the self-experiences of individuals with MS. The chapter argues that the concept of self-pattern provides a way to integrate these different factors. Sensorimotor disturbances in persons with MS compromise body schema and can disrupt various elements of their self-pattern, including pre-reflective experiential, reflective, extended, and intersubjective factors. On this view, movement analysis, handling skills, and clinical reasoning within physiotherapy can be recontextualized. Specificity is particularly important in this context, as sensorimotor functions are cornerstones of intentionality and an individual’s perceptions of affordances in daily life and are not merely neurophysiological processes, as conceived in traditional views on physiotherapy.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aubrieann Schettler ◽  
Ian Holstead ◽  
John Turri ◽  
Michael Barnett-Cowan

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (Sup1) ◽  
pp. S48-S54
Author(s):  
Claire Cook ◽  
Pirjo Vuoskoski

Background: Impaired sensation in the feet is a commonly reported symptom experienced by people with multiple sclerosis. Aim: To explore the lived experiences of people living with multiple sclerosis-related impaired sensation in their feet. Method: Five open, unstructured interviews were analysed using a descriptive phenomenological method developed by Amedeo Giorgi. Findings: The essential structure of the research phenomenon consists of six key constituents: sense of heightened awareness of body sensation; sense of changed relationship to the feet; sense of changed participation in daily life; sense of the self with multiple sclerosis; sense of the meaning of interaction with others; and sense of being with impaired sensation. Conclusions: Findings imply that the experience of impaired sensation in the feet related to multiple sclerosis is a complex, lived-through phenomenon, interrelated to other aspects experienced with the condition. Clinicians are encouraged to consider implications of the phenomenon during encounters with people with multiple sclerosis, being well-placed to provide meaningful support.


2021 ◽  
pp. 267-284
Author(s):  
Jasmine Ho ◽  
Bigna Lenggenhager

The sense of our body is fundamental to human self-consciousness. Many neurological and psychiatric disorders involve atypical corporeal awareness with symptomatology that might be very heterogeneous, affecting various aspects of the bodily self. A common dichotomy divides disorders of the bodily self into disorders affecting predominantly the body schema and disorders predominantly affecting the body image. Yet, increasing evidence suggests that body schema and body image are mutually dependent, making a clear categorization of most disorders difficult. This interdependence is illustrated with examples of a few selected disorders that encompass an atypical sense of the bodily self. A special focus is placed on underlying neural alterations in various body-related brain regions. While body schema-related disorders might rather be linked to a disruption in the integration of multisensory information into a coherent body representation, especially in premotor and posterior parietal areas, body image disturbances, particularly their affective and cognitive aspects, might be linked to a broader network centred around cortical midline structures that are crucially involved in self-referential processes.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Aubrieann Schettler ◽  
Ian Holstead ◽  
John Turri ◽  
Michael Barnett-Cowan

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.


BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. e024913
Author(s):  
Laura Crucianelli ◽  
Lucy Serpell ◽  
Yannis Paloyelis ◽  
Lucia Ricciardi ◽  
Paul Robinson ◽  
...  

IntroductionAnorexia nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder characterised by restriction of energy intake, fears of gaining weight and related body image disturbances. The oxytocinergic system has been proposed as a pathophysiological candidate for AN. Oxytocin is a neuropeptide involved in bodily processes (eg, breast feeding) and in the onset of social behaviours (eg, bonding). Studies investigating the effect of intranasal oxytocin (IN-OT) in AN showed that it can improve attentional bias for high-calorie food and fat bodies stimuli, and related stress. However, less is known about the effect of IN-OT on bodily awareness and body image distortions, key features of the disorder linked to its development, prognosis and maintenance. Here, we aim to investigate the effect of IN-OT on the perception of affective, C-tactile-optimal touch, known to be impaired in AN and on multisensory integration processes underlying a body ownership illusion (ie, rubber hand illusion). For exploratory purposes, we will also investigate the effect of IN-OT on another interoceptive modality, namely cardiac awareness and its relationship with affective touch.Design, methods and analysisForty women with AN and forty matched healthy controls will be recruited and tested in two separate sessions; self-administering IN-OT (40 IU) or placebo, intranasally, in a pseudo-randomised manner. The data from this double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study will be analysed using linear mixed models that allow the use of both fixed (treatment levels) and random (subjects) effects in the same analysis. To address our main hypotheses, separate analyses will be run for the affective touch task, where the primary outcome dependent variable will be the pleasantness of the touch, and for the rubber hand illusion, where we will investigate multisensory integration quantified as subjective embodiment towards the rubber hand. In the latter, we will manipulate the synchronicity of touch and the size of the hand.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval has been obtained by National Research Ethics Service NRES Committee London (Queen’s Square Committee, ref number 14/LO/1593). The results will be disseminated through conference presentations and publication in peer-reviewed journals.


1960 ◽  
Vol 106 (442) ◽  
pp. 17-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. E. Weckowicz ◽  
R. Sommer

Disturbances of ego, self-concept and body-image have always been regarded as central in the psychopathology of schizophrenia. The passivity phenomena, automatisme superieur of the French authors, are indeed very common in this disease. There is a disturbance of the self which is shown in depersonalization and in feelings of influence and passivity. The boundaries of the self become loose or blurred and the patient may feel, for example, that parts of his body do not belong to him or that he is part of the plants, animals, clouds, other people or of the whole world and that they are part of him. He may feel at one with the whole of mankind. Self-concept is closely related to what has been termed “body image” or “perceived body”. Head (29, 30) has shown that what he called “body schema” is very important for motor co-ordination and performance of purposeful movements and also for orientation in space. Schilder (53) in his monograph has analysed the problem of body-image in great detail. He has found in the idea of the body image the basis for the body or physical ego. He follows Head in stating that the body image consists of the proprioceptions of the whole body and that it changes with the body's varying postures. Yet neither Head's body schema nor Schilder's body image are identical with the body ego. The body schema represents the constant mental knowledge of one's body; the body image is the changing presentation of the body in one's mind. Throughout the changes of the body image there is an awareness of continuity of one's body, a sense of basic identity and oneness. This constitutes the bodily or physical ego. The body ego in its turn is the basis of a wider “self” which can be called self-concept or selfhood. This self-concept or selfhood contains, in addition to the awareness of the continuity and the identity of one's own body in spite of its constant change, the awareness of the continuity of one's self as a person in spite of constantly changing relationship with the external world, and in spite of the playing and taking different “roles” in social interactions. According to Mead (38) and Coutu (16), selfhood is a social phenomenon and emerges only through interaction with other people, through “taking their roles” and viewing oneself from their point of view.


2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Vocks ◽  
C. Stahn ◽  
K. Loenser ◽  
T. Legenbauer

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moataz M. Abdel-Fattah ◽  
Abdel-Rahman A. Asal ◽  
Tamer Hifnawy ◽  
Mohamed M. Makhlouf

2021 ◽  
pp. 009365022199149
Author(s):  
Shan Xu ◽  
Zheng Wang

This study integrates the theory of multiple selves within the theoretical framework of dynamic motivational activation (DMA) to identify the dynamic patterns of multiple self-concepts (i.e., the potential self, the actual self) in multitasking (e.g., primary and secondary activities) in daily life. A three-week experience sampling study was conducted on college students. Dynamic panel modeling results suggest that the self-concepts are both sustaining and shifting in daily activities and media activities. Specifically, the potential and actual selves sustained themselves over time in primary and secondary activities, but they also shifted from one to another to achieve a balance in primary activities over time. Interestingly, secondary activities were not driven by the alternative self-concept in primary activities, but instead, by the emotional experiences of primary activities. Furthermore, the findings identified that multitasking to fulfill their actual self did not motivate people to re-prioritize their potential self later.


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