MADDALENA BECCHERLE

PhD Graduate

PhD program:: XXXV


co-supervisor: Prof. Salvatore Maria Aglioti, Dr. Michele Scandola

Thesis title: Virtual pleasant touch perception and Interoceptive processes in chronic clinical conditions: Immersive Virtual Reality, behavioural and psychophysiological evidence on Fibromyalgia and Spinal Cord Injured patients.

Interoception is classically defined as the sense of the physiological condition of the entire body, providing a moment-by-moment mapping of the body’s internal state across both conscious and unconscious levels (Craig, 2002; Khalsa et al., 2018). Along with exteroception and proprioception, interoception provides a complete set of information regarding the state of the body, thus contributing also to emotional processes and self-consciousness (Craig 2009; Berlucchi & Aglioti, 2010). Indeed, interoceptive processing occurs across all major biological systems involved in maintaining bodily homeostasis, involving, among the other, also the nociceptive systems, as proposed by some models that expanded the definition of interoception to other motivationally relevant physiological signals (e.g., pain, cutaneous light ‘sensual’ touch) (Craig, 2002). According to recent evidence alterations in interoceptive processes have been observed in numerous clinical conditions (Garfinkel et al., 2016b; Paulus & Stein, 2006, 2010; Rae, Larsson, Garfinkel, & Critchley, 2018). In particular, chronic pain has attracted the attention of research especially in recent years, leading to hypothesize a relationship between interoception and chronic pain, supported by both behavioural and neuroanatomical studies (Di Lernia et al., 2020; Duschek et al., 2015; Weiss et al., 2014; Mejier et al., 2022; Lu et al., 2016). In line with this recent evidence, the aim of the thesis was to investigate interoceptive related processes in two clinical populations affected by chronic pain and/or somatosensory deafferentation and de-efferentation. The first stream of research, comprising two studies, addressed Fibromyalgia (FM) patients. The general objective was to explore, through an innovative immersive virtual reality approach, the perception of virtual vicarious pleasant and social touch in this clinical population with a specific focus on the potential analgesic effect of virtual pleasant touch on pain perception. The second line of research focused on Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) with the ultimate goal of providing an in-depth investigation of interoception (Experiment 1) and its relationship with bodily self-consciousness (Experiment 2) in this clinical population. In the attempt to overcome the limitations characterizing current research on interoception, the first part of the study on SCI assessed interoception along its three dimensions (i.e., sensibility, accuracy, and awareness) and across different domains. The second part of the study investigated how interoceptive signal, specifically breathing signals, shape bodily self-consciousness by means of an adapted version of a newly developed full body illusion, called the Embreathment illusion (Monti et al., 2020).

Research products

11573/1722818 - 2024 - Examining the role of self-reported somatosensory sensations in body (dis)ownership: A scoping review and empirical study of patients with a disturbed sense of limb ownership
Moro, V.; Scandola, M.; Gobbetto, V.; Bertagnoli, S.; Beccherle, M.; Besharati, S.; Ponzo, S.; Fotopoulou, A.; &Amp;, ; Jenkinson, P. M. - 01g Articolo di rassegna (Review)
paper: NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA (Oxford, United Kingdom: Elsevier Science Limited) pp. - - issn: 0028-3932 - wos: (0) - scopus: (0)

11573/1708076 - 2024 - Topographic mapping of the sensorimotor qualities of empathic reactivity: A psychophysiological study in people with spinal cord injuries
Scandola, Michele; Beccherle, Maddalena; Togni, Rossella; Caffini, Giulia; Ferrari, Federico; Aglioti, Salvatore Maria; Moro, Valentina - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY (Malden MA: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishers New York; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.) pp. - - issn: 0048-5772 - wos: WOS:001164328300001 (1) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85185655191 (1)

11573/1690367 - 2023 - Illusory hand movements in the absence of asomatognosia, spatial neglect and anosognosia for hemiplegia
Beccherle, Maddalena; Gobbetto, Valeria; Bertagnoli, Sara; Bulgarelli, Cristina; Rossato, Elena; Moro, Valentina - 01i Case report
paper: CORTEX (Milano: Masson) pp. 176-180 - issn: 1973-8102 - wos: WOS:001084848100001 (1) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85171543726 (1)

11573/1671230 - 2023 - Effects of the social context on the neurophysiological correlates of observed error monitoring
Pyasik, M.; Beccherle, M.; Faraoni, F.; Pezzetta, R.; Moro, V. - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA (Oxford, United Kingdom: Elsevier Science Limited) pp. 108503- - issn: 0028-3932 - wos: WOS:000935353800001 (1) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85147328890 (1)

11573/1656952 - 2022 - Virtual pleasant touch and pain modulation in patients with Fibromyalgia
Beccherle, M; Fusaro, M; Aglioti, Sm; Rossato, E; Schweiger, V; Moro, V - 04f Poster
conference: Body Representation Network 4 – BRNet4 (Sion (Switzerland))
book: Body Representation Network 4 – BRNet4, Sion - ()

11573/1656954 - 2022 - Virtual social touch on embodied avatars in patients with Fibromyalgia.
Beccherle, M; Fusaro, M; Aglioti, Sm; Rossato, E; Schweiger, V; Moro, V - 04f Poster
conference: XXX Congresso Nazionale Associazione Italiana di Psicologia -AIP2022 (Padova)
book: XXX Congresso Nazionale Associazione Italiana di Psicologia -AIP2022 - ()

11573/1618648 - 2022 - Peripersonal Space from a multisensory perspective: the distinct effect of the visual and tactile components of Visuo-Tactile stimuli
Beccherle, Maddalena; Facchetti, Stefania; Villani, Francesca; Zanini, Marzia; Scandola, Michele - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: EXPERIMENTAL BRAIN RESEARCH (Germany: Springer Verlag) pp. 1-13 - issn: 0014-4819 - wos: WOS:000757109100001 (1) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85124732104 (1)

11573/1618822 - 2022 - Virtual social touch on embodied avatars in patients with fibromyalgia
Beccherle, Maddalena; Fusaro, Martina; Aglioti, Salvatore Maria; Moro, Valentina - 04f Poster
conference: 9th MindBrainBody Symposium 2022 (Virtual)
book: 9th MindBrainBody Symposium 2022 - ()

11573/1656951 - 2022 - Error recognition in stroke patients: the role of perspective and social context
Beccherle, Maddalena; Gobbetto, Valeria; Moro, Valentina - 04f Poster
conference: 5th FESN Summer School “A toolbox for Neuropsychological Research and Practice” (Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin)
book: 5th FESN Summer School - ()

11573/1618803 - 2022 - Una città in carrozzina: fragilità e risorse per la mobilità e il turismo delle persone con disabilità motoria
Moro, Valentina; Beccherle, Maddalena; Facci, Elena; Scandola, Michele - 02a Capitolo o Articolo
book: Fragilità contemporanee. Fenomenologie della violenza e della vulnerabilità - (9788857576565)

11573/1671326 - 2022 - Temporal judgments of actions following unilateral brain damage
Pacella, Valentina; Scandola, M; Bà, M; Smania, N; Beccherle, M; Rossato, E; Volpe, D; Moro, Valentina - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS (London: Springer Nature London: Nature Publishing Group) pp. 21668- - issn: 2045-2322 - wos: WOS:001015461100022 (2) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85144154269 (2)

11573/1618819 - 2021 - Error recognition in stroke patients: the role of perspective and social context
Beccherle, Maddalena; Rossato, Elena; Bulgarelli, Cristina; Moro, Valentina - 04f Poster
conference: XXVII Congresso AIP Sezione Sperimentale (Lecce; Italy)
book: XXVII Congresso AIP Sezione Sperimentale - ()

11573/1483317 - 2020 - Anosognosia for theory of mind deficits: A single case study and a review of the literature.
Pacella, Valentina; Scandola, Michele; Beccherle, Maddalena; Bulgarelli, Cristina.; Avesani, Renato; Carbognin, Giovanni; Agostini, Giulia; Thiebaut De Schotten, Michel; Moro, Valentina - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA (Oxford, United Kingdom: Elsevier Science Limited) pp. 107641- - issn: 0028-3932 - wos: WOS:000595876000007 (5) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85092708496 (5)

11573/1340236 - 2020 - False memories in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis patients: a preliminary investigation with the DRM paradigm
Pitteri, Marco; Vannucci, Manila; Ziccardi, Stefano; Beccherle, Maddalena; Semenza, Carlo; Calabrese, Massimiliano - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS AND RELATED DISORDERS (Amsterdam : Elsevier) pp. - - issn: 2211-0348 - wos: WOS:000521647200005 (1) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85073831305 (1)

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