Body Schema – Function, Task & Diseases
Body scheme
The body schema is the awareness of one’s own body, including its superficial demarcation from the environment. The concept is present from birth and is therefore probably genetic, but it is not fully developed until after puberty . In addition to perceptual stimuli, language development contributes to its formation.
What is the body schema?
The body schema is a neuropsychological concept that describes the mental representation of one’s own body and how one orients oneself to it. The concept consists of two components: the imagination and the perception of the body. Although these two components can be distinguished from one another, they are strongly correlated in a healthy person.
The awareness of the body and its limitations has existed since birth. It is constantly reconfirmed by the multi-sensory information of the skin , movement and balance senses and only fully develops through the repeated interaction of the individual with the environment. The body schema is the basis for the development of subjective individuality and self-esteem . It is an important reference variable for all actions and reactions, although it is a rather unconscious variable.
Arnold Pick first described the basics in 1908. Pierre Bonnier described a disruption of the concept three years earlier under the term ‘Aschématie’.
The body schema is based on sensitive and sensory stimuli of proprioception. However, the imaginative character of the body schema is relatively independent of sensitive and sensory stimuli and is therefore not characterized by sharp object awareness. Thus, the body schema is more of a representation than a perception. In addition to proprioception, social information, such as the naming of body parts, contributes to training.
function & task
The body schema helps people to orientate themselves in space. Since the body schema separates one’s own body from the environment, it is also the anchor point of subjective individuality and the starting point for self-esteem. The interaction between external perception and one’s own body world is a field of tension in humans, which is described by the opposites of exteroception and interoception .
A body schema is already present at birth. This preverbal recognition process occurs through actions in both cerebral hemispheres and would thus be disturbed by lesions in both hemispheres. The preverbal body schema evolves with language development . In communicationthe language-dominant hemisphere also becomes dominant for the body schema. The language-dominant hemisphere recognizes and communicates symbols on its own. From then on, she develops the body schema, which remains as a fixed entity as a whole, for example even after the loss of a limb. The cerebral, i.e. completed by the brain, integration process is assumed to be the basic requirement for an intact body schema. It is also referred to as an autotopic homunculus and is bound to the highest areas of the cerebral cortex in multiple ways.
Sensitive-motor stimuli from the peripheral nervous system are projected and processed in the primarily sensitive cortical areas . They therefore correspond to a reduced model of peripheral body regions.
However, integration and coordination do not take place exclusively in the primary cortex, but in three different stages. In addition to the primary fields, tertiary association fields of the dominant hemisphere are involved in the process. Unlike integration, there is probably no articulated somatotopic substrate for body schema. Rather, the body schema seems to be based on a purely functional interplay of various non-topically structured brain fields. For this reason, the body schema is already disturbed when we are tired , for example. Because of the connections to the somatotopically segmented cortical field Postcentral Gyrushowever, at least a partial somatotopic structure is ascribed to bodily sensation. A genetic basis of the scheme is suspected.
Diseases & Ailments
The body schema can be distorted by mental disorders with impaired consciousness . It also plays a sometimes difficult role after amputations . If an amputated limb is not quickly replaced with a prosthesis , the old body pattern often remains for the patient. They continue to perceive the amputated body parts and mentally move these phantom limbs with them. If children are born without limbs, they sometimes still have an idea of the whole body schema. This observation has convinced scientists of a genetic basis for body schema.
The well-known phantom pains after amputations have little to do with the body schema. They correspond more to spontaneous excitation of the Noziz nerve cells , which were formerly assigned to the body part and form a so-called pain memory. The hyperexcitability of these nerve cells occurs as a result of surgical trauma.
As after an amputation, the body schema is also disturbed in diseases in the dominant parietal region. Those affected no longer pay attention to the left side of the body. There is then a so-called neglect . The patient does not notice that the left extremities are paralyzed . This connection is also known as anosognosia . Similarly, there can be a neglect of blindness because of body schema , as is the case with Anton syndrome .
Neuropsychological disorders of this type also underlie ego disorders . An example of such an ego disorder is depersonalization . There are localized neuronal indications of a neurological representation of the psychological ego. So far, however, it has not been possible to allocate the ego to any special brain center. Presumably because it is too comprehensive and not yet properly understood by humans.
Hello! I am Lisa Newlon, and I am a medical writer and researcher with over 10 years of experience in the healthcare industry. I have a Master’s degree in Medicine, and my deep understanding of medical terminology, practices, and procedures has made me a trusted source of information in the medical world.