Reduced functional resting-state connectivity in chronic pain patients with small fiber neuropathy.

Chronic neuropathic pain can lead to structural and functional brain reorganization. Neuropathic pain, the main symptom of small fiber neuropathy (SFN), may be linked to specific brain biosignatures. Functional connectivity changes during resting state (RS) have been observed in SFN patients, but little is known about these changes in idiopathic SFN.

Temporal Summation of Pain Unpleasantness Is Increased in Borderline Personality Disorder.

Background: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterised by deficient regulation of emotions and is associated with reduced pain sensitivity, which has been related to self-injury and dissociation. BPD can therefore be used as a model to better understand pain-modulating mechanisms and their association with affective processing. However, studies assessing pain-modulating processes in BPD are sparse.

Body representation in dreams of congenital and early-life amputees.

Phantom limb pain (PLP) is a common consequence of the amputation of a limb. Individuals with congenital limb absence (here: congenital amputees), however, seem to rarely experience PLP. Previous results suggest that the experience of PLP in the waking state affects the recalled body appearance in dreams of individuals with acquired limb amputation, with PLP being associated with the recall of an impaired rather than an intact body.

Development and validation of the Persian Prosthesis Embodiment Scale for Lower Limb Amputees.

Purpose: To investigate the psychometric features of the Persian version of the recently introduced Prosthesis Embodiment Scale for Lower Limb Amputees (PEmbS-LLA), as well its revised form.

Materials And Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the translation process for the PEmbS-LLA followed internationally recommended guidelines. Scale reliability was determined by assessing internal consistency and test-retest reliability (after two weeks) using Cronbach's alpha and Spearman's correlation coefficients, respectively.

Exteroception and the perceived (dis)connection of the body and the self: Implications for the understanding of dissociative self-experiences in borderline personality disorder.

Dissociation describes a state of altered consciousness in which self-related functions are no longer integrated. In its extreme form, the self is perceived as detached from the physical body, resulting in so-called out-of-body experiences (OBEs). It has been previously proposed that altered bottom-up sensory integration contributes to this kind of dissociative self-experience, which is supported by results on the experimental induction of OBEs in nonclinical individuals by appropriate visuotactile stimulation.

The German adaptation of the Amputee Body Image Scale and the importance of psychosocial adjustment to prosthesis use.

Negative cognitions related to one's own body, here referred to as body image disturbances (BID), are common after lower limb amputation and correlate with weak psychological functioning. The Amputee Body Image Scale (ABIS) is internationally used to assess BID in persons with lower limb amputation. However, there is no psychometrically evaluated German adaptation available.

Body Evaluation and Body Ownership in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: the Role of Interoceptive Sensibility and Childhood Maltreatment.

Objective: Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are accompanied by symptoms that can vastly affect patients' representations of their bodies. The aim of this study was to investigate alterations in body evaluation and body ownership in IBD and their link to interoceptive sensibility, gastrointestinal-specific anxiety, and history of childhood maltreatment.

Methods: Body evaluation and ownership was assessed in 41 clinically remitted patients with IBD and 44 healthy controls (HC) using a topographical self-report method.

Reduced tactile sensitivity is associated with mild cognitive impairment.

Background: Sensory impairment has been related to age-associated cognitive decline. While these associations were investigated primarily in the auditory and visual domain, other senses such as touch have rarely been studied. Thus, it remains open whether these results are specific for particular sensory domains, or rather point to a fundamental role of sensory deficits in cognitive decline.

Effects of an app-based sensorimotor training in promoting neuroplasticity and neuropsychological functioning in frailty: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: Loss of sensorimotor stimulation and maladaptive plastic changes of the brain may play a major role in problematic aging phenomena such as frailty. However, it is not clear if interventions specifically targeting neuroplasticity can reverse or slow the development of frailty.

Objectives: We compared the effect of a tablet-based neuroplasticity-oriented sensorimotor training (experimental group, EG) and a tablet-based relaxation training (control group, CG) on frailty and sensorimotor brain function.

Rasch validation of the German version of the Prosthesis Embodiment Scale for lower limb amputees and proposal of a revised version.

Purpose: To perform a detailed psychometric Rasch analysis of the Prosthesis Embodiment Scale (PEmbS) administered in adults with lower limb amputation (LLA).

Methods: A convenience sample of German-speaking adults with LLA ( = 150), recruited from German state agencies' databases, was asked to complete the PEmbS, a 10-item patient-reported scale assessing prosthesis embodiment.

Results: The local dependency between two items was resolved by keeping for the global score only the lower score of these two items (#9 and #10).

Rasch validation of the German translation of the Prosthetic Limb Users Survey of Mobility short forms in people with lower limb amputation.

Background: Prostheses are a primary rehabilitative intervention for people after lower limb amputation. To appropriately measure the effectiveness of prosthetic interventions, valid and reliable measures of prosthetic mobility are required. The Prosthetic Limb Users Survey of Mobility (PLUS-M) is a promising instrument for measuring prosthesis users' mobility.

Prevalence of Phantom Phenomena in Congenital and Early-Life Amputees.

Phantom limb pain (PLP) is a common consequence of the amputation of a limb. Persons with congenital limb absence (congenital amputees) or an acquired limb amputation at an early age seem to rarely experience PLP. However, the number of available studies and their sample sizes are low.

Is It a Gut Feeling? Bodily Sensations Associated With the Experience of Valence and Arousal in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Background: Previous studies have shown dysfunctional emotion processing in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), characterized by a hypersensitivity to negative emotions and a hyposensitivity to positive emotions. Models of emotion processing emphasize the importance of bodily sensations to the experience of emotions. Since there have been no studies on whether emotion-associated bodily sensations are changed in IBD, we investigated the experience of bodily sensations related to valence and arousal, together with their links to emotional awareness, as one domain of interoceptive sensibility relevant to emotion processing.

Pleasant touch perception in borderline personality disorder and its relationship with disturbed body representation.

Background: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by altered perception of affective stimuli, including abnormal evaluation of nociceptive input. However, whether or not perceptual alterations are present for its positive counterpart, i.e.

Cognitive Models of Limb Embodiment in Structurally Varying Bodies: A Theoretical Perspective.

Using the seminal rubber hand illusion and related paradigms, the last two decades unveiled the multisensory mechanisms underlying the sense of limb embodiment, that is, the cognitive integration of an artificial limb into one's body representation. Since also individuals with amputations can be induced to embody an artificial limb by multimodal sensory stimulation, it can be assumed that the involved computational mechanisms are universal and independent of the perceiver's physical integrity. This is anything but trivial, since experimentally induced embodiment has been related to the embodiment of prostheses in limb amputees, representing a crucial rehabilitative goal with clinical implications.

Mind over matter: Perceived phantom/prosthesis co-location contributes to prosthesis embodiment in lower limb amputees.

Prosthesis embodiment - the cognitive integration of a prosthesis into an amputees' body representation - has been identified as important for prosthetic rehabilitation. However, the underlying cognitive mechanisms remain unclear. There is reason to assume that phantom limbs that are experienced as part of the bodily self (phantom self-consciousness) can affect prosthesis embodiment, but only if the phantom and the prosthesis can be brought into perceived co-location (phantom prosthesis tolerance, PPT).

Limb apparent motion perception: Modification by tDCS, and clinically or experimentally altered bodily states.

Limb apparent motion perception (LAMP) refers to the illusory visual perception of a moving limb upon observing two rapidly alternating photographs depicting the same limb in two different postures. Fast stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) induce the more visually guided perception of physically impossible movements. Slow SOAs induce the perception of physically possible movements.

The Prevalence and Characteristics of Phantom Limb Pain and Non-Painful Phantom Phenomena in a Nationwide Survey of 3,374 Unilateral Limb Amputees.

The experience of phantom limb pain (PLP) is a common consequence of limb amputation, resulting in severe impairments of the affected person. Previous studies have shown that several factors such as age at or site of amputation are associated with the emergence and maintenance of PLP. In this cross-sectional study we assessed the presence of several phantom phenomena including PLP and other amputation-related information in a sample of 3,374 unilateral upper and lower limb amputees.

Phantom limb pain after unilateral arm amputation is associated with decreased heat pain thresholds in the face.

Background: The mechanisms underlying chronic phantom limb pain (PLP) are complex and insufficiently understood. Altered sensory thresholds are often associated with chronic pain but quantitative sensory testing (QST) in PLP has so far been inconclusive due to large methodological variation between studies and small sample sizes.

Methods: In this study, we applied QST in 37 unilateral upper-limb amputees (23 with and 14 without PLP) and 19 healthy controls.

Body connection mediates the relationship between traumatic childhood experiences and impaired emotion regulation in borderline personality disorder.

Background: Previous studies revealed an association between traumatic childhood experiences and emotional dysregulation in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, possible mediating pathways are still not fully understood. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential mediating role of body connection, describing the awareness of the relationship of bodily and mental states, for the association between a history of traumatic childhood experiences and BPD core symptomatology.

Factors Associated With Prosthesis Embodiment and Its Importance for Prosthetic Satisfaction in Lower Limb Amputees.

Perceptual integration of a prosthesis into an amputee's body representation, that is, prosthesis embodiment, has been proposed to be a major goal of prosthetic treatment, potentially contributing to the user's satisfaction with the device. However, insufficient knowledge about individual or prosthetic factors associated with prosthesis embodiment challenges basic as well as rehabilitation research. In the present study, hierarchical multiple regression analyses on prosthesis embodiment-as assessed with the recently introduced -were applied to the survey data of a large sample of prosthesis-using lower limb amputees, entering relevant objective-descriptive (i.

Prosthesis embodiment and attenuation of prosthetic touch in upper limb amputees - A proof-of-concept study.

Sensory attenuation of self-touch, that is, the perceptual reduction of self-generated tactile stimuli, is considered a neurocognitive basis for self-other distinction. However, whether this effect can also be found in upper limb amputees using a prosthesis is unknown. Thirteen participants were asked to touch their foot sole with a) their intact hand (self-touch), b) their prosthesis (prosthesis-touch), or c) let it be touched by another person (other-touch).

Interoceptive Awareness Is Negatively Related to the Exteroceptive Manipulation of Bodily Self-Location.

The perception of being located within one's body (i.e., bodily self-location) is an essential feature of everyday self-experience.

Evaluation of the own body in women with current and remitted borderline personality disorder: evidence for long-lasting effects of childhood sexual abuse.

Background: Evaluation of one's own body highly depends on psychopathology. In contrast to healthy women, body evaluation is negative in women from several diagnostic groups. Particularly negative ratings have been reported in disorders related to childhood sexual abuse (CSA) including borderline personality disorder (BPD).