Case 1 - The Man Who Lost His Body

Question 1

What is integration of information?

Answer 1

How to combine information from various sources about the body and its surroundings

Question 2

Sense of ownership

Answer 2

Understanding what contributes to the feeling of owning and identifying with one’s body

Question 3

Plasticity of Body Representation

Answer 3

Examining the malleability or stability of our mental representation of the body over short-term and long-term periods

Question 4

Who is Ian Waterman?

Answer 4

A significant case in psychology, a man who lost touch and muscle sense below the neck but not on his face due to a virus, relying on vision and relearning basic movements

Question 5

What does afferent mean?

Answer 5

Refers to sensory nerve fibres

Question 6

What does efferent refer to?

Answer 6

Motor nerve fibres

Question 7

What is somatosensation?

Answer 7

The perception of the body, including skin senses, proprioception, and internal organ sensations

Question 8

What is proprioception?

Answer 8

The ability to sense the body’s position, movement and orientation

Question 9

What are cutaneous mechanoreceptors?

Answer 9

Specialised receptors in the skin responding to different stimuli (e.g., pressure, flutter, stretching, vibration)

Question 10

Psychophysics of touch

Answer 10

Study of the relationship between physical stimuli and sensory experiences, involving four touch channels

Question 11

What are nociceptors?

Answer 11

Pain receptors detecting mechanical, thermal, chemical and polymodal stimuli

Question 12

What are thermoreceptors?

Answer 12

Receptors sensitive to temperature changes, differentiating between hot and cold sensations

Question 13

What are proprioceptive receptors?

Answer 13

Mechanosensitive receptors in muscles and joints providing information about body position and movement

Question 14

Dorso Column-Medial Lemniscal System

Answer 14

Neural pathway for touch and proprioception

Question 15

Spinothalamic System

Answer 15

Neural pathway for pain and temperature

Question 16

Somatosensory Cortex

Answer 16

Brain regions processing sensory information, including muscle sense, skin receptors, pressure and joint sense.

Question 17

What is a postural schema?

Answer 17

A dynamic mental mode of body posture and movement, constantly updated based on sensory input

Question 18

What does ‘body in the brain’ mean?

Answer 18

Mental constructs like body schema, body image and corporeal awareness related to the dynamic organisation of one’s body

Question 19

Postural Schema (Head and Holmes)

Answer 19

The idea that the cortex associates sensations from altered postures with a plastic schema, constantly changing based on new movements

Question 20

Body Schema vs. Body Image:

Answer 20

Body schema is the pre-attentive representation of body and posture, influencing consciousness. Body image is the set of beliefs and attitudes about the body, treating the body as an object of perception.
Criticisms: Interchangeable use of terms, challenges in defining independence of representations

Question 21

Proprioception for perceiving bodies

Answer 21

Inversion effects in recognising body postures, potentially influenced by proprioception. Study on Ian Waterman and controls, suggesting long-term body representation’s role in posture recognition

Question 22

Forward Model of Motor Control

Answer 22

Movements in deafferented patients (e.g., IW and GL) lacking feedback from muscles, relying on vision for flexibility.

Question 23

Finger Tapping and Sensory Feedback

Answer 23

Study on tapping fingers with varying sensory feedback, highlighting the importance of somatosensation for anticipatory timing.

Question 24

Retained Proprioceptive Inputs

Answer 24

Patients with retained proprioceptive and tactile inputs from head and neck, showing more plasticity in the nervous system

Question 25

C Tactile (CT) Afferents:

Answer 25

Unmyelinated mechnoreceptors with low thresholds, found in humans. Patient GL’s study indicating activation in the insular cortex, suggesting a slow touch system in humans.

Question 26

Pleasant Touch and Emotional Aspects

Answer 26

Evidence for a slow touch system in humans associated with emotional aspects of tactile stimulation. The disembodied lady’s experience and the link between CT fiber firing and pleasantness

Question 27

Function of Pleasant Touch

Answer 27

Promotion of affiliative behaviour, formation of social bonds, and nonverbal communication of emotions. Affective proprioception as a potential source of pleasure derived from precise and harmonious.

Question 28

Affective Proprioception

Answer 28

Pleasure from movements related to the match between intentions and feedback. Consideration of how movements look and what they achieve, and the emotional binding of agency with embodied selves.