Cerebral damage may induce a delusional belief so that patients claim that their limbs contralateral to the side of the lesion belong to someone else (somatoparaphrenia). This disorder, which is not due to a general delirium, is frequently accompanied by the inability to feel tactile sensations in the 'non-belonging' part of the body. We report the unique case of a patient with somatoparaphrenia in whom dense tactile imperception in the left hand dramatically recovered when she was instructed to report touches delivered to her: niece's hand, rather than to her own hand. We suggest that, through, this verbal instruction, the mismatch between the patient's belief about the ownership, of her left hand and her ability to perceive touch on it was transiently recomposed. This is evidence that apparently elementary deficits, such as hemianesthesia, and selective delusional behavior, such as somatoparaphrenia, may both originate from an impairment of the body image

Bottini, G., Bisiach, E., Sterzi, R., Vallar, G. (2002). Feeling touches in someone else's hand. NEUROREPORT, 13(2), 249-252 [10.1097/00001756-200202110-00015].

Feeling touches in someone else's hand

Vallar, G.
2002

Abstract

Cerebral damage may induce a delusional belief so that patients claim that their limbs contralateral to the side of the lesion belong to someone else (somatoparaphrenia). This disorder, which is not due to a general delirium, is frequently accompanied by the inability to feel tactile sensations in the 'non-belonging' part of the body. We report the unique case of a patient with somatoparaphrenia in whom dense tactile imperception in the left hand dramatically recovered when she was instructed to report touches delivered to her: niece's hand, rather than to her own hand. We suggest that, through, this verbal instruction, the mismatch between the patient's belief about the ownership, of her left hand and her ability to perceive touch on it was transiently recomposed. This is evidence that apparently elementary deficits, such as hemianesthesia, and selective delusional behavior, such as somatoparaphrenia, may both originate from an impairment of the body image
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
body image; ownership; somatoparaphrenia; spatial neglect
English
2002
13
2
249
252
none
Bottini, G., Bisiach, E., Sterzi, R., Vallar, G. (2002). Feeling touches in someone else's hand. NEUROREPORT, 13(2), 249-252 [10.1097/00001756-200202110-00015].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/3606
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