BB-REBUS
Brain-Body factoRs mediating altEred Bodily representations in mUltiple pathological conditionS
Our own body is an “object” of perception. We can perceive its shape, weight, temperature, and we have experience of it, as by feeling the body as ours, as distinct from that of others and objects. These body perceptions (BP) are mediated by neural body representations, fed by a continuous brain-body bidirectional flow of multisensory signals. Disruptions of this flow, due to neural damage or sensorimotor deficits limiting environmental interactions, can alter BP. Alterations of BP can occur in diverse conditions including stroke (STK), spinal cord injuries (SCI) and multiple sclerosis (MS). Unlike motor functions, BP alterations are often overlooked in patients. This oversight limits our understanding of BP alterations, their underlying brain-body mechanism, their frequency and potential effect on disease evolution, directly affecting patients’ management and rehabilitative strategies. BB-REBUS brings together a highly interdisciplinary consortium to address this gap and establish a common framework for assessment, monitoring, and rehabilitation of BP alterations across disorders. Explicit broad characterization (WP1) and deep phenotyping (WP2) are combined with machine learning approaches (WP3) to understand brain-body interplays underlying BP alterations. STK, SCI and MS patients undergo broad BP characterization through questionnaires together with assessments of sensorimotor symptom, lesion analyses (STK, MS), and resting-state EEG (all patients, WP1). Patients reporting BP alterations are further deeply evaluated in motor abilities, daily activities, and interoceptive sensitivity (WP2). A model of commonalities and differences in BP alterations across pathologies is obtained (WP3). The results provide a comprehensive understanding of BP alterations among STK, SCI, and MS patients, covering frequency, evolution, sensory-motor-cognitive-neural factors to be disseminated through new educational courses for health professionals and patient-oriented-seminars. This knowledge inspires future personalized rehabilitative interventions and is scalable to other pathologies affecting sensorimotor abilities and BP.
