Perception of spatial requirements for wheelchair locomotion in experienced users with Tetraplegia

Higuchi, Tatsuo; Hatano, Nao; Soma, Koichi; Imanaka, Kuniyasu

doi:10.2114/jpa2.28.15

Cited by 34 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…This assistive device offers the possibility, at least in principle, to partially “repair” the motor functionality of the damaged body part [24], [41] and appears conceived not as an object to move but as a mediator of the limbs’ action. This reorganization of body model is consistent with the positive inclusion of the wheelchair to accommodate physical impairment and restore mobility [13]–[15], [18], [42], [43]. The perceived bodily experience is that of being functionally whole, and the system reorganizes itself to achieve its original balance, which enables the immobile user to act in the world.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

“…Therefore, we aimed to establish the effect of sensorimotor loss, and the specific use of this tool, on wheelchair embodiment. It is important to note that previous SCI studies have already demonstrated the physical adjustment to, [7], [15], [16], [18] and brain representation of [17], the “body plus wheelchair” being perceived as one. We also capitalized on the fact that 12 of the patients recruited for this study were tested in a separate experiment that indicated patients with SCI embody functionally relevant wheelchair action sounds (unpublished data, presented in Galli et al, Concepts, Actions, and Objects; Functional and Neural Prospective Meeting Abstract, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Functionally Relevant Tool for the Body following Spinal Cord Injury

et al. 2013

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A tool such as a prosthetic device that extends or restores movement may become part of the identity of the person to whom it belongs. For example, some individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) adapt their body and action representation to incorporate their wheelchairs. However, it remains unclear whether the bodily assimilation of a relevant external tool develops as a consequence of altered sensory and motor inputs from the body or of prolonged confinement sitting or lying in the wheelchair. To explore such relationships, we used a principal component analysis (PCA) on collected structured reports detailing introspective experiences of wheelchair use in 55 wheelchair-bound individuals with SCI. Among all patients, the regular use of a wheelchair induced the perception that the body’s edges are not fixed, but are instead plastic and flexible to include the wheelchair. The PCA revealed the presence of three major components. In particular, the functional aspect of the sense of embodiment concerning the wheelchair appeared to be modulated by disconnected body segments. Neither an effect of time since injury nor an effect of exposure to/experience of was detected. Patients with lesions in the lower spinal cord and with loss of movement and sensation in the legs but who retained upper body movement showed a higher degree of functional embodiment than those with lesions in the upper spinal cord and impairment in the entire body. In essence, the tool did not become an extension of the immobile limbs; rather, it became an actual tangible substitution of the functionality of the affected body part. These findings suggest that the brain can incorporate relevant artificial tools into the body schema via the natural process of continuously updating bodily signals. The ability to embody new essential objects extends the potentiality of physically impaired persons and can be used for their rehabilitation.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Functionally Relevant Tool for the Body following Spinal Cord Injury

et al. 2013

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“…One key finding supporting this understanding was that the critical ratio value for beginning rotation was constant among individuals regardless of the individual’s body size [1]. This was a case even when horizontal space required for passage is transiently wider than the body because a participant was transporting an external object [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], although this seems to occur only for well learned behavior [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Rule for Scaling Shoulder Rotation Angles while Walking through Apertures

2012

Self Cite

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BackgroundWhen an individual is trying to fit into a narrow aperture, the amplitude of shoulder rotations in the yaw dimension is well proportioned to the relative aperture width to body width (referred to as the critical ratio value). Based on this fact, it is generally considered that the central nervous system (CNS) determines the amplitudes of shoulder rotations in response to the ratio value. The present study was designed to determine whether the CNS follows another rule in which a minimal spatial margin is created at the aperture passage; this rule is beneficial particularly when spatial requirements for passage (i.e., the minimum passable width) become wider than the body with an external object.Methodology/Principal FindingsEight young participants walked through narrow apertures of three widths (ratio value = 0.9, 1.0, and 1.1) while holding one of three horizontal bars (short, 1.5 and 2.5 times the body width). The results showed that the amplitude of rotation angles became smaller for the respective ratio value as the bar increased in length. This was clearly inconsistent with the general hypothesis that predicted the same rotation angles for the same ratio value. Instead, the results were better explained with a new hypothesis which predicted that a smaller rotation angle was sufficient to produce a constant spatial margin as the bar-length increased in length.ConclusionThe results show that, at least under safe circumstances, the CNS is likely to determine the amplitudes of shoulder rotations to ensure the minimal spatial margin being created at one side of the body at the time of crossing. This was new in that the aperture width subtracted from the width of the body (plus object) was taken into account for the visuomotor control of locomotion through apertures.

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“…In some ways, individuals in absence of sensory motor signals from peripheral body parts may also paradoxically be more sensitive to visual body configurations and possible distortions per se. In this regard, the subjective broadening of the shoulders in insentient and immobile patients with an SCI is interesting and reflects the referencing of body width to the width of a wheelchair [25–27], suggesting that the absence of normal body sensations may play a larger role in the perceptual recalibration of the body [28, 29]. When using salient body-assistive tools, the persistent visual motor exposure to an assistive device becomes an important mediator of implicit corporeal knowledge.…”

Section: Visual Input In the Construction Of Body Distortionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plasticity and Awareness of Bodily Distortion

Pazzaglia

Zantedeschi

2016

Neural Plasticity

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Knowledge of the body is filtered by perceptual information, recalibrated through predominantly innate stored information, and neurally mediated by direct sensory motor information. Despite multiple sources, the immediate prediction, construction, and evaluation of one's body are distorted. The origins of such distortions are unclear. In this review, we consider three possible sources of awareness that inform body distortion. First, the precision in the body metric may be based on the sight and positioning sense of a particular body segment. This view provides information on the dual nature of body representation, the reliability of a conscious body image, and implicit alterations in the metrics and positional correspondence of body parts. Second, body awareness may reflect an innate organizational experience of unity and continuity in the brain, with no strong isomorphism to body morphology. Third, body awareness may be based on efferent/afferent neural signals, suggesting that major body distortions may result from changes in neural sensorimotor experiences. All these views can be supported empirically, suggesting that body awareness is synthesized from multimodal integration and the temporal constancy of multiple body representations. For each of these views, we briefly discuss abnormalities and therapeutic strategies for correcting the bodily distortions in various clinical disorders.

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Perception of spatial requirements for wheelchair locomotion in experienced users with Tetraplegia

Cited by 34 publications

References 12 publications

A Functionally Relevant Tool for the Body following Spinal Cord Injury

A Functionally Relevant Tool for the Body following Spinal Cord Injury

Rule for Scaling Shoulder Rotation Angles while Walking through Apertures

Plasticity and Awareness of Bodily Distortion

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