title: Imagined paralysis impairs embodied spatial transformations.
abstract: Recent studies showed that motor deficits and limb amputations selectively impair mental rotation of respective body parts. This is due to modifications in the body schema, which plays a pivotal role in bodily related mental spatial transformations. In the present study, we investigated whether imagined paralysis could affect mental transformations in healthy participants. Participants were required to make leg laterality judgments of imitable and non-imitable body postures that were presented at different orientations. Mental spatial transformation of imitable body posture relies on emulation processes, a mechanism through which the posture is covertly imitated by the observer. Imagined paralysis selectively impaired mental transformation of imitable body postures. These results reflect an inability to fully emulate stimulus postures, suggesting a modulation in the body schema. Our results show that the body schema incorporates top-down information about motoric constraints which can influence embodied cognition in healthy participants.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Muesmattstrasse 45, University of Bern , Bern , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.forename: Caroline J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Falconer
authors.forename: Fred W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Mast