ArticlePloS one2018
Embodied pain in fibromyalgia: Disturbed somatorepresentations and increased plasticity of the body schema.
Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- The bodily self in fibromyalgia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of body image, body representation, and interoceptive dysfunction.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2026Pooled it
- Tactile Detection in Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review and a Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2021Pooled it
- Craniofacial Laterality Discrimination and Psychological Factors in Women with Fibromyalgia: A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Relating proprioceptive embodiment to body dissatisfaction in anorexia and bulimia patients: effect of visual body images.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- "I See What Others Don't See When They Look at Me": A Qualitative Study of Body Perception Disturbances in Chronic Non-Cancer Pain.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- XR body illusion for managing pain in fibromyalgia: examining optimal duration.Virtual reality · 2026Article
- Article
- Sensory processing in medically unexplained pain syndrome. A systematic review.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- How Bud Craig's Insights Reshape the Research on Pain and Mind-Body Therapies.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Visuotactile integration in individuals with fibromyalgia.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Article
- Virtual embodiment in fibromyalgia.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Emotion regulation and the salience network: a hypothetical integrative model of fibromyalgia.Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2023Review
- The Virtual "Enfacement Illusion" on Pain Perception in Patients Suffering from Chronic Migraine: A Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Patients' Lived Experience in a Multicomponent Intervention for Fibromyalgia Syndrome in Primary Care: A Qualitative Interview Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- "My Hand Is Different": Altered Body Perception in Stroke Survivors with Chronic Pain.Brain sciences · 2022Article
- Body Image, Medication Use, and Mental Health among Women with Fibromyalgia in Flanders, Belgium.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Qigong Training Positively Impacts Both Posture and Mood in Breast Cancer Survivors With Persistent Post-surgical Pain: Support for an Embodied Cognition Paradigm.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Article
- Correlating cognition and cortical excitability with pain in fibromyalgia: a case control study.Advances in rheumatology (London, England) · 2021Article
- Bodily Illusions and Motor Imagery in Fibromyalgia.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a highly prevalent, chronic musculoskeletal condition characterized by widespread pain and evoked pain at tender points. This study evaluated various aspects of body awareness in a sample of 14 women with FMS and 13 healthy controls, such as plasticity of the body schema, body esteem, and interoceptive awareness. To this end, the Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI), the Body Esteem Scale (BES), and the Body Perception Questionnaire (BPQ) were used, respectively. Consistent with increased plasticity of the body schema, FMS patients scored higher, with large or very large effect sizes, across all three domains evaluated in the RHI paradigm, namely proprioceptive drift and perceived ownership and motor control over the rubber hand. Scores on all items addressed by the BES were consistently lower among FMS subjects (2.52, SEM .19 vs 3.89, SEM .16, respectively, p < .01, Cohen's d = .38-.66). In the FMS sample, BES scores assigned to most painful regions also were lower than those assigned to the remaining body sites (1.58, SEM .19 vs 2.87, SEM .18, respectively, p < .01). Significantly higher scores (p < .01, Cohen's d = .51-.87) were found in the FMS sample across awareness (3.57 SEM .15 vs 1.87 SEM .11), stress response (3.76 SEM .11 vs 1.78 SEM .11), autonomic nervous system reactivity (2.59 SEM .17 vs 1.35 SEM .07), and stress style 2 (2.73 SEM .27 vs 1.13 SEM .04) subscales of the BPQ. Intensity of ongoing clinical pain was found to be strongly correlated with interoceptive awareness (r = .75, p = .002). The results suggest a disturbed embodiment in FMS, characterized by instability of the body schema, negatively biased cognitions regarding one's own body, and increased vigilance to internal bodily cues. These manifestations may be interpreted as related with the inability of incoming sensory inputs to adequately update negatively biased off-line somatorepresentations stored as long-term memory.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.