Abstract
Knowledge of the body is filtered by perceptual information, recalibrated through predominantly innate stored information, and neurally mediated by direct sensory motor information. Despite multiple sources, the immediate prediction, construction, and evaluation of one's body are distorted. The origins of such distortions are unclear. In this review, we consider three possible sources of awareness that inform body distortion. First, the precision in the body metric may be based on the sight and positioning sense of a particular body segment. This view provides information on the dual nature of body representation, the reliability of a conscious body image, and implicit alterations in the metrics and positional correspondence of body parts. Second, body awareness may reflect an innate organizational experience of unity and continuity in the brain, with no strong isomorphism to body morphology. Third, body awareness may be based on efferent/afferent neural signals, suggesting that major body distortions may result from changes in neural sensorimotor experiences. All these views can be supported empirically, suggesting that body awareness is synthesized from multimodal integration and the temporal constancy of multiple body representations. For each of these views, we briefly discuss abnormalities and therapeutic strategies for correcting the bodily distortions in various clinical disorders.
Highlights
When considering the issue of distorted body representations, it is important to first clarify the relevant terms
One may rely on an awareness of the body that is based mainly on information about vision and location. This predicts body image adjustments that are specific to the ways in which the body appears but with no strong correspondence to implicit body morphology
The greater medial shift in little finger activation coincided with lower fractional anisotropy in S1 hand area, as measured by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which would normally innervate the legs of patients with paraplegia [64]
Summary
When considering the issue of distorted body representations, it is important to first clarify the relevant terms. The “body” is a complex physical object between the world and the brain, and the term “body representation” refers to the immediate prediction, construction, and evaluation of one’s own corporal structure and space and those of other bodies. This account will not address the controversies around different definitions of the body (body schema, body image, body ideal, body model, body semantics, body structure, and topological body), which are variously invoked to explain clinical “disturbances” following brain damage. Neural Plasticity strategies to correct one or more bodily distortions in people with a diseased body and an intact brain, such as those with spinal cord injuries (SCI)
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