Self-body recognition and attitudes towards body image in younger and older women

Despite the fact that ageing causes dramatic changes in bodily appearance, little is known about how self-body recognition changes across life span. Here, we investigated whether older, compared to younger women, differed in the ability of recognising their own than other women’s body parts and whether this effect was associated to negative body image dispositions. Twenty-eight young (Mage: 25.93 years, SDage = 4.74) and 25 middle-aged (Mage: 54.36 years, SDage = 4.54) women completed an implicit task consisting of visual matching of self and others’ body parts and an explicit self–other body discrimination task. Stimuli comprised of images of body parts of the participant and of other age- and BMI-matched models, which were presented in the original size or modified to look rounder or thinner. Measures of adiposity (i.e. BMI), body image concerns and appearance-related worries for specific body parts and for the whole body were also collected. Whilst both groups showed a self-body advantage in the implicit, but not in the explicit task, the advantage was notably bigger for the younger group. However, the implicit self-advantage was higher in those middle-aged women that displayed more body image concerns and worries for specific body parts. Furthermore, the two groups were comparably less able in recognising their body parts when presented thinner as compared to rounder or in their actual size. Overall, these findings open the possibility that, as women age, their implicit self-recognition abilities may decline in association with more negative body image dispositions.

Development of an exoskeleton for the rehabilitation of the flexo-extensor movement of the elbow

In this research work, the development of an electro-mechanical device for the rehabilitation of the flexor-extensor movement of the elbow with rehabilitative potential is presented. For the development of this prototype, an elbow joint was designed and built which allows movements from 0 ° to 120 °. The design of the gear system was carried out using Solid Edge software from a previous selection of the step motor that offered enough torque to achieve flexion and extension of the elbow, then for the construction of this system a 3D printing was used in PLA. This system was coupled to a hinged arm stabilizer system. The prototype is operated from a software application on Android using the IDE MITapp inventor, which sends the desired angulation to an Arduino device which implements a digital control system. To improve the perception of exoskeleton therapy, a telerehabilitation software application was developed using IDE processing and a Kinect body recognition device, which guides the patient in an interactive therapy where they perform the rehabilitation of flexion and extension movement by guiding a virtual object from one angle to another.

The authors have requested that this preprint be removed from Research Square.

Purpose: Despite the fact that ageing causes dramatic changes in bodily appearance, little is known about how self-body recognition changes across life span. Here, we investigated whether older, compared to younger women, differed in the ability of recognising their own than other women’s body parts and whether this effect was associated to negative body image dispositions. Methods: Twenty-eight young (Mage: 25.93 yrs, SDage = 4.74) and 25 middle-aged (Mage: 54.36 yrs, SDage = 4.54) women completed an implicit task consisting in visual matching of self and others’ body parts and an explicit self-other body discrimination task. Stimuli comprised of images of body parts of the participant and of other age- and BMI- matched models, which were presented in the original size or modified to look rounder or thinner. Self-report measures of abnormal body image concerns and appearance-related worries for specific body parts were also collected. Results: Whilst both groups showed a self-body advantage in the implicit, but not in the explicit task, the advantage was notably bigger for the younger group. However, the implicit self-advantage was higher in those middle-age women that displayed more abnormal body image concerns and worries for specific body parts. Furthermore, the two groups were comparably less able in recognizing their body parts when presented thinner as compared to rounder or in their actual size. Conclusions: Overall, these findings open the possibility that, as women age, their implicit self-recognition abilities may decline in association with more negative body image dispositions.

Self-Body Recognition through a Mirror: Easing Spatial-Consistency Requirements for Rubber Hand Illusion

Considering that humans recognize mirror images as copies of the real world despite misinterpreting optical reflections, spatial disagreement may be accepted in rubber hand illusion (RHI) settings when a mirror is used to show a fake hand. The present study performed two experiments to reveal how self-body recognition of a fake hand via a mirror affects RHI. First, we tested whether illusory ownership of a fake hand seen in a mirror could be induced in our experimental environment (screening experiment). Subjective evaluations using an RHI questionnaire demonstrated that embodiment of the rubber hand was evoked in the presence or absence of a mirror. We then examined whether using a mirror image for RHI allows disagreement in orientation (45 ∘ ) between the rubber and actual hands (main experiment). The participants experienced RHI even when the actual and rubber hands were incongruent in terms of orientation. These findings suggest that using a mirror masks subtle spatial incongruency or degrades the contribution of visual cues for spatial recognition and facilitates multisensory integration for bodily illusions.