BODY REPRESENTATIONS--NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND ANATOMIC BASIS

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DESCRIPTION: (Adapted From The Applicant's Abstract) The proposed investigations are intended to advance the currently limited understanding of the nature and anatomic bases of the brain's representations of the human body. These representations include the body image, body schema and body structural description. An unselected group of subjects with unilateral stroke will be tested on a battery of tasks to determine the prevalence of disorders of body representation and to define the anatomic bases of these effects by correlating performances with lesion site as defined by neuro-imaging studies. Those patients who demonstrate impairments involving specific types of body representations will serve as subjects in a second series of studies aimed at defining of body representations will serve as subjects in a second series of studies aimed at defining the mechanisms that underlie these effects. A series of investigations will be performed to assess the possible therapeutic role of interventions targeting the body schema. Finally, a series of investigations in normals using fMRI will be performed to investigate the anatomic underpinnings of the postulated body representations. The proposed investigations have both clinical and theoretical significance. From a theoretical standpoint, these studies would offer important insights into the cognitive architecture of body representations. The potential clinical significance of this work is also clear. If, as hypothesized, the body schema is crucial to action, interventions targeting this representations may have important therapeutic implications.