Raimo Simona, Boccia Maddalena, Di Vita Antonella, Cropano Maria, Guariglia Cecilia, Grossi Dario, Palermo Liana
Department of Psychology, University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Caserta, Italy.
Department of Psychology, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Front Neurosci. 2021 Feb 24;15:586684. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2021.586684. eCollection 2021.
Interoceptive information plays a pivotal role in building body representations (BR), but the association between interoception and the different types of BR in healthy individuals has never been systematically investigated. Thus, this study aimed to explore the association between BR and interoceptive sensibility (IS) throughout adulthood. One hundred thirty-seven healthy participants (50 aged from 18 to 40 years old; 50 aged from 41 to 60 years old; and 37 over 60 years old) were given a self-report tool for assessing IS (the Self-Awareness Questionnaire; SAQ), and a specific battery including tasks evaluating three different BR (i.e., the body schema, using the Hand Laterality Task; the body structural representation, using the Frontal Body Evocation task, FBE; and body semantics, using the Object-Body Part Association Task) as well as control tasks (i.e., tasks with non-body stimuli). The older age group (aged over 60 years old) showed lower performances on the tasks probing the body schema and body structural representation than younger groups (aged 18 to 40 and 41 to 60 years old). More interestingly, worse performances on a task assessing the body schema were significantly associated with higher IS with older age, suggesting that higher awareness of one's inner body sensations would decrease the plasticity of this BR. These findings are interpreted according to the neuropsychological model of BR development and the effects of aging on the brain.
内感受信息在构建身体表征（BR）中起着关键作用，但健康个体的内感受与不同类型的身体表征之间的关联从未得到系统研究。因此，本研究旨在探讨成年期身体表征与内感受敏感性（IS）之间的关联。137名健康参与者（50名年龄在18至40岁之间；50名年龄在41至60岁之间；37名年龄超过60岁）接受了一种用于评估内感受敏感性的自我报告工具（自我意识问卷；SAQ），以及一组特定的测试，包括评估三种不同身体表征的任务（即使用手部偏侧性任务评估身体图式；使用额叶身体诱发任务评估身体结构表征；使用物体 - 身体部位关联任务评估身体语义）以及对照任务（即使用非身体刺激的任务）。年龄较大的组（年龄超过60岁）在探测身体图式和身体结构表征的任务上表现低于较年轻的组（年龄在18至40岁和41至60岁之间）。更有趣的是，在评估身体图式的任务中表现较差与年龄较大时较高的内感受敏感性显著相关，这表明对自身内部身体感觉的更高意识会降低这种身体表征的可塑性。这些发现根据身体表征发展的神经心理学模型以及衰老对大脑的影响进行了解释。
