Revisiting the Body-Schema Concept in the Context of Whole-Body Postural-Focal Dynamics

AbstractSituational or persistent body fluid deficit (i.e., de- or hypo-hydration) is considered a significant health risk factor. Bioimpedance analysis (BIA) has been suggested as an alternative to less reliable subjective and biochemical indicators of hydration status. The present study aimed to compare various BIA models in the prediction of direct measures of body compartments associated with hydration/osmolality. Fish (n = 20) was selected as a biological model for physicochemically measuring proximate body compartments associated with hydration such as water, dissolved proteins, and non-osseous minerals as the references or criterion points. Whole-body and segmental/local impedance measures were used to investigate a pool of BIA models, which were compared by Akaike Information Criterion in their ability to accurately predict the body components. Statistical models showed that ‘volumetric-based’ BIA measures obtained in parallel, such as distance2/Rp, could be the best approach in predicting percent of body moisture, proteins, and minerals in the whole-body schema. However, serially-obtained BIA measures, such as the ratio of the reactance to resistance and the resistance adjusted for distance between electrodes, were the best fitting in predicting the compartments in the segmental schema. Validity of these results should be confirmed on humans before implementation in practice.

Download Full-text

Balancing the Mind

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000161 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 59 (6) ◽

pp. 332-339 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Caroline J. Falconer ◽

Fred W. Mast

Keyword(s):

Reference Frames ◽

Body Schema ◽

Vestibular Stimulation ◽

The Body ◽

Whole Body ◽

Bottom Up ◽

Mental Transformation ◽

Body Reference ◽

The Mind ◽

Mental Transformations

The body schema is a key component in accomplishing egocentric mental transformations, which rely on bodily reference frames. These reference frames are based on a plurality of different cognitive and sensory cues among which the vestibular system plays a prominent role. We investigated whether a bottom-up influence of vestibular stimulation modulates the ability to perform egocentric mental transformations. Participants were significantly faster to make correct spatial judgments during vestibular stimulation as compared to sham stimulation. Interestingly, no such effects were found for mental transformation of hand stimuli or during mental transformations of letters, thus showing a selective influence of vestibular stimulation on the rotation of whole-body reference frames. Furthermore, we found an interaction with the angle of rotation and vestibular stimulation demonstrating an increase in facilitation during mental body rotations in a direction congruent with rightward vestibular afferents. We propose that facilitation reflects a convergence in shared brain areas that process bottom-up vestibular signals and top-down imagined whole-body rotations, including the precuneus and tempero-parietal junction. Ultimately, our results show that vestibular information can influence higher-order cognitive processes, such as the body schema and mental imagery.

Download Full-text

Body Image and Self-Concept in Schizophrenia

Journal of Mental Science ◽

10.1192/bjp.106.442.17 ◽

1960 ◽

Vol 106 (442) ◽

pp. 17-39 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

T. E. Weckowicz ◽

R. Sommer

Keyword(s):

Body Image ◽

Body Schema ◽

Point Of View ◽

The Body ◽

The Self ◽

Self Concept ◽

Whole Body ◽

Constant Change ◽

And Performance ◽

Body Ego

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.

Download Full-text

The Psychological Reality of the Body Schema: A Test With Normal Subjects

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e665412011-156 ◽

1992 ◽

Author(s):

Catherine L. Reed ◽

Martha J. Farah

Keyword(s):

Body Schema ◽

Normal Subjects ◽

The Body ◽

Psychological Reality

Download Full-text

A Simple and Inexpensive Clinical Whole Body Counter

Nuklearmedizin ◽

10.1055/s-0038-1624972 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 15 (05) ◽

pp. 248-253

Author(s):

A. K. Basu ◽

S. K. Guha ◽

B. N. Tandon ◽

M. M. Gupta ◽

M. ML. Rehani

Keyword(s):

The Body ◽

Whole Body ◽

Vitro Assay ◽

Body Counter ◽

Optimum Parameters ◽

Whole Body Counter ◽

Single Detector ◽

Background Index ◽

Iodide Crystal

SummaryThe conventional radioisotope scanner has been used as a whole body counter. The background index of the system is 10.9 counts per minute per ml of sodium iodide crystal. The sensitivity and derived sensitivity parameters have been evaluated and found to be suitable for clinical studies. The optimum parameters for a single detector at two positions above the lying subject have been obtained. It has been found that for the case of 131I measurement it is possible to assay a source located at any point in the body with coefficient of variation less than 5%. To add to the versatility, a fixed geometry for in-vitro counting of large samples has been obtained. The retention values obtained by the whole body counter have been found to correlate with those obtained by in-vitro assay of urine and stool after intravenous administration of 51Cr-albumin.

Download Full-text

Visualization of Invasion into the Body and Internal Diffusion of Nanoparticles

Key Engineering Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/kem.396-398.569 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 396-398 ◽

pp. 569-572

Author(s):

Fumio Watari ◽

Shigeaki Abe ◽

I.D. Rosca ◽

Atsuro Yokoyama ◽

Motohiro Uo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Biomedical Applications ◽

Fluorescent Microscopy ◽

The Body ◽

Internal Diffusion ◽

Whole Body ◽

X Ray ◽

Body Level ◽

Organ Level ◽

Level 2 ◽

Internal Body

Nanoparticles may invade directly into the internal body through the respiratory or digestive system and diffuse inside body. The behavior of nanoparticles in the internal body is also essential to comprehend for the realization of DDS. Thus it is necessary to reveal the internal dynamics for the proper treatments and biomedical applications of nanoparticles. In the present study the plural methods with different principles such as X-ray scanning analytical microscope (XSAM), MRI and Fluorescent microscopy were applied to enable the observation of the internal diffusion of micro/nanoparticles in the (1) whole body level, (2) inner organ level and (3) tissue and intracellular level. Chemical analysis was also done by ICP-AES for organs and compared with the results of XSAM mapping.

Download Full-text

Integumentary Colour Allocation in the Stork Family (Ciconiidae) Reveals Short-Range Visual Cues for Species Recognition

Birds ◽

10.3390/birds2010010 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 138-146

Author(s):

Eduardo J. Rodríguez-Rodríguez ◽

Juan J. Negro

Keyword(s):

Short Range ◽

Visual Cues ◽

Species Recognition ◽

The Body ◽

Whole Body ◽

Divergent Evolution ◽

Black And White ◽

Extant Species ◽

Chromatic Spectrum ◽

Mixed Species Flocks

The family Ciconiidae comprises 19 extant species which are highly social when nesting and foraging. All species share similar morphotypes, with long necks, a bill, and legs, and are mostly coloured in the achromatic spectrum (white, black, black, and white, or shades of grey). Storks may have, however, brightly coloured integumentary areas in, for instance, the bill, legs, or the eyes. These chromatic patches are small in surface compared with the whole body. We have analyzed the conservatism degree of colouration in 10 body areas along an all-species stork phylogeny derived from BirdTRee using Geiger models. We obtained low conservatism in frontal areas (head and neck), contrasting with a high conservatism in the rest of the body. The frontal areas tend to concentrate the chromatic spectrum whereas the rear areas, much larger in surface, are basically achromatic. These results lead us to suggest that the divergent evolution of the colouration of frontal areas is related to species recognition through visual cue assessment in the short-range, when storks form mixed-species flocks in foraging or resting areas.

Download Full-text

Robot-Assisted Autism Therapy (RAAT). Criteria and Types of Experiments Using Anthropomorphic and Zoomorphic Robots. Review of the Research

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21113720 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (11) ◽

pp. 3720

Author(s):

Barbara Szymona ◽

Marcin Maciejewski ◽

Robert Karpiński ◽

Kamil Jonak ◽

Elżbieta Radzikowska-Büchner ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Body Schema ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

The Body ◽

Review Of The Literature ◽

Robot Assisted ◽

Social Contacts ◽

Joint Activities ◽

Autism Therapy ◽

Real Person ◽

Future Work

Supporting the development of a child with autism is a multi-profile therapeutic work on disturbed areas, especially understanding and linguistic expression used in social communication and development of social contacts. Previous studies show that it is possible to perform some therapy using a robot. This article is a synthesis review of the literature on research with the use of robots in the therapy of children with the diagnosis of early childhood autism. The review includes scientific journals from 2005–2021. Using descriptors: ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders), Social robots, and Robot-based interventions, an analysis of available research in PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science was done. The results showed that a robot seems to be a great tool that encourages contact and involvement in joint activities. The review of the literature indicates the potential value of the use of robots in the therapy of people with autism as a facilitator in social contacts. Robot-Assisted Autism Therapy (RAAT) can encourage child to talk or do exercises. In the second aspect (prompting during a conversation), a robot encourages eye contact and suggests possible answers, e.g., during free conversation with a peer. In the third aspect (teaching, entertainment), the robot could play with autistic children in games supporting the development of joint attention. These types of games stimulate the development of motor skills and orientation in the body schema. In future work, a validation test would be desirable to check whether children with ASD are able to do the same with a real person by learning distrust and cheating the robot.

Download Full-text

Comparison of superficial wound documentation using 2D forensic photography, 3D photogrammetry, Botscan© and VR with real-life examination

Forensic Science Medicine and Pathology ◽

10.1007/s12024-021-00393-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 422-430

Author(s):

Federico Massini ◽

Lars Ebert ◽

Garyfalia Ampanozi ◽

Sabine Franckenberg ◽

Lena Benz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gold Standard ◽

3D Visualization ◽

Real Life ◽

The Body ◽

Whole Body ◽

Forest Plot ◽

Technical Documentation ◽

Forensic Photography ◽

Head Mounted Display ◽

Significant Difference

AbstractEvidence acquisition, interpretation and preservation are essential parts of forensic case work that make a standardized documentation process fundamental. The most commonly used method for the documentation and interpretation of superficial wounds is a combination of two modalities: two-dimensional (2D) photography for evidence preservation and real-life examination for wound analysis. As technologies continue to develop, 2D photography is being enhanced with three-dimensional (3D) documentation technology. In our study, we compared the real-life examination of superficial wounds using four different technical documentation and visualization methods.To test the different methods, a mannequin was equipped with several injury stickers, and then the different methods were applied. A total of 42 artificial injury stickers were documented in regard to orientation, form, color, size, wound borders, wound corners and suspected mechanism of injury for the injury mechanism. As the gold standard, superficial wounds were visually examined by two board-certified forensic pathologists directly on the mannequin. These results were compared to an examination using standard 2D forensic photography; 2D photography using the multicamera system Botscan©, which included predefined viewing positions all around the body; and 3D photogrammetric reconstruction based on images visualized both on screen and in a virtual reality (VR) using a head-mounted display (HMD).The results of the gold standard examination showed that the two forensic pathologists had an inter-reader agreement ranging from 69% for the orientation and 11% for the size of the wounds. A substantial portion of the direct visual documentation showed only a partial overlap, especially for the items of size and color, thereby prohibiting the statistical comparison of these two items. A forest plot analysis of the remaining six items showed no significant difference between the methods. We found that among the forensic pathologists, there was high variability regarding the vocabulary used for the description of wound morphology, which complicated the exact comparison of the two documentations of the same wound.There were no significant differences for any of the four methods compared to the gold standard, thereby challenging the role of real-life examination and 2D photography as the most reliable documentation approaches. Further studies with real injuries are necessary to support our evaluation that technical examination methods involving multicamera systems and 3D visualization for whole-body examination might be a valid alternative in future forensic documentation.

Download Full-text

Correlation of age, sex and season with the state of human decomposition as quantified by postmortem computed tomography

Forensic Science Medicine and Pathology ◽

10.1007/s12024-021-00356-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Dominic L. C. Guebelin ◽

Akos Dobay ◽

Lars Ebert ◽

Eva Betschart ◽

Michael J. Thali ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Computed Tomography ◽

Demographic Data ◽

Sociodemographic Factors ◽

The State ◽

The Body ◽

Seasonal Effects ◽

Whole Body ◽

Postmortem Computed Tomography ◽

Whole Body Computed Tomography ◽

Urban Study

AbstractDead bodies exhibit a variable range of changes with advancing decomposition. To quantify intracorporeal gas, the radiological alteration index (RAI) has been implemented in the assessment of postmortem whole-body computed tomography. We used this RAI as a proxy for the state of decomposition. This study aimed to (I) investigate the correlation between the state of decomposition and the season in which the body was discovered; and (II) evaluate the correlations between sociodemographic factors (age, sex) and the state of decomposition, by using the RAI as a proxy for the extent of decomposition. In a retrospective study, we analyzed demographic data from all autopsy reports from the Institute of Forensic Medicine of Zurich between January 2017 to July 2019 and evaluated the radiological alteration index from postmortem whole-body computed tomography for each case. The bodies of older males showed the highest RAI. Seasonal effects had no significant influence on the RAI in our urban study population with bodies mostly being discovered indoors. Autopsy reports contain valuable data that allow interpretation for reasons beyond forensic purposes, such as sociopolitical observations.

Download Full-text