Mental body Representation alterations in patients with Parkinson’s Disease
Keywords:
Parkinson’s disease, Mental body representation, Action-oriented body representation, Body schema, Non-action-oriented body representation, Body imageAbstract
Mental body representation (MBR) is a complex cognitive domain that includes structural, spatial, lexical and semantic body features. A widely accepted taxonomy in the literature distinguishes between two types of MBR: "action-oriented" MBR, relating to the planning, execution and monitoring of movements, and "non-action-oriented" MBR, concerning, for example, the recognition of body parts, knowledge of their spatial relations and self-awareness. Currently, few studies have investigated MBR alterations in patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD), producing however discordant results. Therefore, the present work aims to explore and clarify further the alterations of MBR in patients with PD. To this end, 25 patients and 24 healthy controls underwent a neuropsychological battery to assess global cognitive functioning, MBR, the occurrence of depressive, anxious and apathetic symptoms, along with impulsive-compulsive disorders. Overall, results showed a greater impairment of MBR in patients with PD compared to healthy controls, suggesting a characteristic difficulty of the former to mentally represent body features. Finally, significant correlations emerged between MBR abilities and disease staging and between MBR abilities and global cognitive functioning, suggesting that MBR worsens according to PD progression and the global cognitive status of patients.
doi: 10.53240/2025topic4n1.0.001
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