Abstract
Fibromyalgia (FM) is characterised by chronic, continuous, widespread pain, often associated with a sense of fatigue, non-restorative sleep and physical exhaustion. Due to the nature of this condition and the absence of other neurological issues potentially able to induce disorders in body representations per se, it represents a perfect model since it provides an opportunity to study the relationship between pain and the bodily self. Corporeal illusions were investigated in 60 participants with or without a diagnosis of FM by means of an ad hoc devised interview. In addition, motor imagery was investigated and illusions relating to body part movements and changes in body size, feelings of alienness, and sensations of body parts not belonging to one’s own body (disownership and somatoparaphrenic-like sensations) were found. Crucially, these symptoms do not correlate with any of the clinical measures of pain or functional deficits. The results showed that motor imagery was also impaired, and the severity of the deficits found correlated with the functional impairment of the participant. This indicates that disorders in body representations and motor imagery are part of the clinical expression of FM. However, while motor imagery seems to be linked to reduced autonomy and functional deficits, bodily illusions are independent and potentially represent a concurrent symptom.
Highlights
Perceived by individuals as unique and consistent, the sense of self is a complex construct which is built over the course of a person’s life on the basis of affective and social experiences, cognition and sensory-motor activity
The main limitation of the study concerns the number of participants which was not very large in terms of the methodology used which was based on a verbal interview (BoFI-FM) and a self-judgment task (VMIQ)
It was not possible to identify the potential presence of a topography relating to corporeal illusions and motor imagery deficits
Summary
Perceived by individuals as unique and consistent, the sense of self is a complex construct which is built over the course of a person’s life on the basis of affective and social experiences, cognition (e.g., memories) and sensory-motor activity. We sense that the body we inhabit is our own body and that we are that body This experience is taken for granted in daily life and is not something which we pay attention to unless something particular or unexpected happens (e.g., when your arm falls asleep due to the compression of peripheral nerves). In spite of this apparent stability, the sense of body is extremely plastic and fragile, as shown in several studies on neurological patients with body representation disorders as a consequence of brain damage (Pacella et al, 2019; Fornia et al, 2020; Moro et al, 2021b).
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