We tested the hypothesis that the body selfadvantage, i.e., the facilitation in discriminating self versus other people's body-eVectors, is the expression of an implicit and body-speciWc knowledge, based mainly on the sensorimotor representation of one's own body-eVectors. Alternatively, the body self-advantage could rely on visual recognition of pictorial cues. According to the Wrst hypothesis, using gray-scale pictures of body-parts, the body selfadvantage should emerge when self-body recognition is implicitly required and should be speciWc for body-eVectors and not for inanimate-objects. In contrast, if the self-advantage is due to a mere visual-perceptual facilitation, it should be independent of the implicit or explicit request (and could be extended also to objects). To disentangle these hypotheses, healthy participants were implicitly or explicitly required to recognize either their own body-eVectors or inanimate-objects. Participants were more accurate in the implicit task with self rather than with others' bodyeVectors. In contrast, the self-advantage was not found when an explicit recognition of one's own body-eVectors was required, suggesting that the body self-advantage relies upon a sensorimotor, rather than a mere visual representation of one's own body. Moreover, the absence of both self/ other and implicit/explicit eVects, when processing inanimate-objects, underlines the diVerences between the body and other objects.

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Apraxia is a higher level motor deficit that occurs when processing a goal-directed action. The apraxic deficit can manifest itself in absence of sensory input deficits or motor output deficits, neglect, frontal inertia or dementia. According to a clinical classification still largely in use, there are two main forms of limb apraxia: ideomotor (IMA) and ideational (IA), observed when a patient is required to imitate a gesture or use an object, respectively. In the present review, we examined only the cognitive treatments of both types of limb apraxia of a vascular aetiology. Despite the high prevalence of limb apraxia caused by left brain damage, and the fact that apraxia has been known for over a century, the literature regarding its rehabilitation is still very limited. This is partly due to the nature of the recovery from the deficit, and in part to the automatic-voluntary dissociation. Here we review those treatments that have proved most successful in helping patients to recover from limb apraxia.

Background and Purpose: Deficits of self-awareness (SA) are very common after severe acquired brain injury (sABI), especially in traumatic brain injury (TBI), playing an important role in the efficacy of the rehabilitation process. This pilot study provides information regarding two structured group therapies for disorders of SA.Methods: Nine patients with severe TBI were consecutively recruited and randomly assigned to one SA group therapy programme, according either to the model proposed by Ben-Yishay & Lakin (1989) (B&L Group), or by Sohlberg & Mateer (1989) (S&M Group). Neuropsychological tests and self-awareness questionnaires were administered before and after a 10 weeks group therapy.Results: Results showed that both SA and neuropsychological functioning significantly improved in both groups.Conclusion: It is important to investigate and treat self-awareness, also to improve the outcome of neuropsychological disorders. The two group therapies proposed seem to be specific for impulsivity and emotional dyscontrol and for cognitive disorders.

The role of active tool use in the remapping of space in hemispatial neglect patients has been extensively investigated. To date, however, there is no evidence that observing tool use can play a role in the remapping of space in hemispatial neglect patients. In this study, a patient with a severe hemispatial neglect in near but not far space and twelve healthy controls were asked to bisect near and far lines using a laser pen. The task was performed both before and immediately after sessions in which they merely observed the experimenter bisecting near and far lines with a stick. During the observation session, participants were either holding an identical stick or empty-handed. Results, in both the neglect patient and healthy controls, showed that observing the experimenter bisecting line while holding the same tool, produces a remapping of the far space into the near space. This result was particularly evident in the neglect patient where observing line-bisection task extended the spatial deficit from the near to the far space. Our results provide new empirical support to the idea that the space around us is not mapped in merely metrical terms, rather it seems to be deeply impacted by both action observation and execution.