Photo Credit: Elena Nichizhenova

The following is a summary of “tactile distance estimation despite body representation distortions in individuals with fibromyalgia,” published in the July 2024 issue of Pain by Augière et al.

Tactile information is the representation of the body, and it depends on different sensory modalities, while tactile distance estimation (TDE) tasks and tactile perception measures have been linked to body representation assessments. Still, TDE has not been explored in FM, a condition associated with body representation distortions.  

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to target individuals with fibromyalgia (FM), which shows the presence of body representation distortions and tactile alterations. 

They studied 20 participants with FM and 24 pain-free controls who performed a TDE task on three body regions (upper limb, trunk, lower limb), which manually estimated the interstimulus distance on a tablet. The difference in TDE error between the estimation and the interstimulus distance was not the same in any of the groups or body regions.

The result showed a clear and frequent body representation distortion of the FM group compared to controls.

They concluded that the contrast between distorted body drawings and unchanged TDE suggested that tactile information integration remains intact in fibromyalgia. It also indicated a precise tactile perception but impaired overall body schema accuracy.

Source: frontiersin.org/journals/pain-research/articles/10.3389/fpain.2024.1414927/full