Professor Kazumichi Matsumiya of the Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University has found that there are multiple "body in the mind" instead of one.
Patients with motor paralysis due to stroke or motor dysfunction due to aging have abnormalities in the hands and feet of the "body in the mind" that they feel in their minds, and this "body in the mind" Recovery holds the key to overcoming motor dysfunction.Current rehabilitation does not consider the recovery of the "body in the mind", so even if the damaged body part moves due to therapeutic intervention, the "body in the mind" has not recovered. After a while, the body part will not move again.
"Body in the mind" is an old concept of the body that has existed for about a century, but it can only be grasped by the subjective impression of the patient.Also, conventionally, it has been thought that only one exists in the brain and is used in common for all exercises, but when performing multiple exercises (for example, moving eyes and hands at the same time). The expression "body in the mind" was not clear.
In this research, we have developed a method to measure "body in mind" using virtual reality technology.Using this, as a result of conducting an experiment in which the subject points to the fingertips and joints of his right hand that he feels in his mind at the same time with his eyes and the index finger of his left hand, whether he points with his eyes or with his left hand. It turned out that the shape of the right hand felt in the mind differs depending on whether it is pointed (the shape of the right hand pointed by the left hand is more distorted).This shows that there are two "body in the mind", and it is an epoch-making result that urges the conventional concept of "body in the mind" to be revised.
This result, which suggests that the "body in the mind" is expressed separately in the brain when performing two exercises (eye and hand movements, etc.) at the same time, is a new result of motor dysfunction. It may also lead to diagnosis.It also contributes to the development of new technology that visualizes abnormalities in the "body in the mind" that cause movement disorders.
Paper information:[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America] Multiple representations of the body schema for the same body part
