Ricerc@Sapienza

Objective: It has been repeatedly hypothesized that at least 3 distinct types of body representations do exist: body schema, a representation derived from multiple sensory and motor inputs; topological map of the body, a structural description of spatial relations among the body parts; and body semantics, a lexical-semantic representation. Although several studies have assessed neural correlates of the topological map of the body in healthy participants, a systematic investigation of neural underpinnings of the topological map of the body in brain-damaged patients is still lacking.

There is still a matter of debate around the nature of personal neglect. Is it an attention disorder or a body representation disorder? Here we investigate the presence of body representation deficits (i.e., the visuo-spatial body map) in right and left brain-damaged patients and in particular in those affected by personal neglect. 23 unilateral brain-damaged patients (5 left-brain-damaged and 18 right-brain-damaged patients) and 15 healthy controls took part in the study.

«Embodiment» is a term that highlights how our sense of the body is plastic and can be extended beyond the biological self to incorporate a salient tool. Theoretical bases are grounded in the widely discussed concepts of embodiment, tool use, and body representation. To support these claims, we will first explore highlight a pathway in the confusing scenario of the consequences of dynamic bodily representations. The primary interest is to explore the potentialities of embodiment, and to assess human experiences that can be directly measured concerning partial or complete bodily illusions.