scholarly journals Body Representations in Children with Cerebral Palsy

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonella Di Vita ◽  
Maria Cristina Cinelli ◽  
Simona Raimo ◽  
Maddalena Boccia ◽  
Stefano Buratin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Palsy ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Body Representation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Structural Representation ◽  
Body Representations ◽  
Children With Cerebral Palsy ◽  
And Performance

We constantly process top-down and bottom-up inputs concerning our own body that interact to form body representations (BR). Even if some evidence showed BR deficits in children with cerebral palsy, a systematic study that evaluates different kinds of BR in these children, taking into account the possible presence of a general deficit affecting non-body mental representations, is currently lacking. Here we aimed at investigating BR (i.e., Body Semantics, Body Structural Representation and Body Schema) in children with cerebral palsy (CP) taking into account performance in tasks involving body stimuli and performance in tasks involving non-body stimuli. Thirty-three CP (age range: 5–12 years) were compared with a group of 103 typically-developing children (TDC), matched for age and sex. 63.64% of children with CP showed a very poor performance in body representation processing. Present data also show alterations in different body representations in CP in specific developmental stages. In particular, CP and TDC performances did not differ between 5 to 7 years old, whereas CP between 8 and 12 years old showed deficits in the Body Structural Representation and Body Schema but not in Body Semantics. These findings revealed the importance of taking into account the overall development of cognitive domains when investigating specific stimuli processing in children who do not present a typical development and were discussed in terms of their clinical implications.

scholarly journals The Body Across Adulthood: On the Relation Between Interoception and Body Representations

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Raimo ◽  
Maddalena Boccia ◽  
Antonella Di Vita ◽  
Maria Cropano ◽  
Cecilia Guariglia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Schema ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Older Age ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Structural Representation ◽  
Body Representations ◽  
Hand Laterality ◽  
Effects Of Aging

Interoceptive information plays a pivotal role in building body representations (BR), but the association between interoception and the different types of BR in healthy individuals has never been systematically investigated. Thus, this study aimed to explore the association between BR and interoceptive sensibility (IS) throughout adulthood. One hundred thirty-seven healthy participants (50 aged from 18 to 40 years old; 50 aged from 41 to 60 years old; and 37 over 60 years old) were given a self-report tool for assessing IS (the Self-Awareness Questionnaire; SAQ), and a specific battery including tasks evaluating three different BR (i.e., the body schema, using the Hand Laterality Task; the body structural representation, using the Frontal Body Evocation task, FBE; and body semantics, using the Object-Body Part Association Task) as well as control tasks (i.e., tasks with non-body stimuli). The older age group (aged over 60 years old) showed lower performances on the tasks probing the body schema and body structural representation than younger groups (aged 18 to 40 and 41 to 60 years old). More interestingly, worse performances on a task assessing the body schema were significantly associated with higher IS with older age, suggesting that higher awareness of one’s inner body sensations would decrease the plasticity of this BR. These findings are interpreted according to the neuropsychological model of BR development and the effects of aging on the brain.

scholarly journals Body Representations and Cognitive Ontology: Drawing the boundaries of the body image

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Gadsby
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Body Representation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Reciprocal Interaction ◽  
Body Representations ◽  
Alice In Wonderland ◽  
The Relationship

The distinction between body image and body schema has been incredibly influential in cognitive neuroscience. Recently, researchers have begun to speculate about the relationship between these representations (Gadsby, 2017; 2018; Pitron & de Vignemont, 2017; Pitron et al., 2018). Within this emerging literature, Pitron and colleagues (2018) proposed that the long-term body image and long-term body schema co-construct one another, through a process of reciprocal interaction. In proposing this model, they make two assumptions: that the long-term body image incorporates the spatial characteristics of tools, and that it is distorted in the case of Alice in wonderland syndrome. Here, I challenge these assumptions, with a closer examination of what the term “long-term body image” refers to. In doing so, I draw out some important taxonomic principles for research into body representation.

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.

Triadic body representations in the human cerebral cortex and peripheral nerves

2021 ◽  
pp. 133-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noriaki Kanayama ◽  
Kentaro Hiromitsu
Keyword(s):  
Peripheral Nerves ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Body Representation ◽  
Neural System ◽  
The Body ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Structural Description ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
The Brain

Is the body reducible to neural representation in the brain? There is some evidence that the brain contributes to the functioning of the body from neuroimaging, neurophysiological, and lesion studies. Well-known dyadic taxonomy of the body schema and the body image (hereafter BSBI) is based primarily on the evidence in brain-damaged patients. Although there is a growing consensus that the BSBI exists, there is little agreement on the dyadic taxonomy because it is not a concrete and common concept across various research fields. This chapter tries to investigate the body representation in the cortex and nervous system in terms of sensory modality and psychological function using two different approaches. The first approach is to review the neurological evidence and cortical area which is related to body representation, regardless of the BSBI, and then to reconsider how we postulate the BSBI in our brain. It can be considered that our body representation could be constructed by the whole of the neural system, including the cortex and peripheral nerves. The second approach is to revisit the BSBI conception from the viewpoint of recent neuropsychology and propose three types of body representation: body schema, body structural description, and body semantics. This triadic taxonomy is considered consistent with the cortical networks based on the evidence of bodily disorders due to brain lesions. These two approaches allow to reconsider the BSBI more carefully and deeply and to give us the possibility that the body representation could be underpinned with the network in the brain.

scholarly journals Effectiveness of nutritional status correction in children with cerebral palsy

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 135-140
Author(s):  
A. A. Kamalova ◽  
R. F. Rakhmaeva ◽  
E. M. Ahmadullina ◽  
L. I. Basanova
Keyword(s):  
Body Weight ◽  
Cerebral Palsy ◽  
Nutritional Status ◽  
Nutritional Support ◽  
Skinfold Thickness ◽  
Component Composition ◽  
Physical Rehabilitation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Children With Cerebral Palsy ◽  
Nutritional Status Of Children

The frequency of underweight in children with cerebral palsy is about 60–70%. A benefit of nutritional support in children with cerebral palsy are underestimated. The use of nutritional support during active physical rehabilitation can have a positive effect on not only body weight, but also the component composition of the body and their rehabilitation potential.The aim of our study was to evaluate the effectiveness of nutritional support – a hypercaloric (1,5 kcal/ml) polymer formula with fibers (Pediashure 1,5 Fiber, Abbott) in children with cerebral palsy.Characteristics of children and research methods. Anthropometric indicators (body weight, height, body mass index, triceps skinfold thickness, subscapular skinfold thickness, mid-upper arm circumference, shoulder muscle circumference) and body composition were studied in 15 underweight children with cerebral palsy aged 4–10 years with the level of motor disorders GMFCSIII–IV. They were prescribed of nutritional support with a hyper caloric mixture (1,5kcal/ml) with fiber lasting 3months during active physical rehabilitation.Results. Against the background of nutritional support, there was a significant increase in body weight, height, z-score of body weight, mainly due to musculoskeletal, active cell and lean mass. In addition to correcting the nutritional status of children with cerebral palsy, an improvement in their motor abilities was noted.

scholarly journals Implicit and Explicit Body Representations

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Longo
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Information ◽  
Body Representation ◽  
Position Sense ◽  
The Body ◽  
Size Perception ◽  
Somatosensory Processing ◽  
Body Representations ◽  
Size And Shape ◽  
Tactile Localization ◽  
Somatosensory Information

Several forms of perception require that sensory information be referenced to representations of the size and shape of the body. This requirement is especially acute in somatosensation in which the main receptor surface (i.e., the skin) is itself coextensive with the body. This paper reviews recent research investigating the body representations underlying somatosensory information processing, including abilities such as tactile localization, tactile size perception, and position sense. These representations show remarkably large and stereotyped distortions of represented body size and shape. Intriguingly, these distortions appear to mirror distortions characteristic of somatosensory maps, though in attenuated form. In contrast, when asked to make overt judgments about perceived body form, participants are generally quite accurate. This pattern of results suggests that higher-level somatosensory processing relies on a class of implicit body representation, distinct from the conscious body image. I discuss the implications of these results for understanding the nature of body representation and the factors that influence it.

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