From Experimental Body Representation to Clinical Practice: Translating Body Swap Illusions into Medicine

Research on body representation has transformed our understanding of how the brain constructs the experience of the body through multisensory integration. Experimental paradigms such as the body swap illusion, body ownership illusion, and sense of embodiment have revealed the remarkable plasticity of body perception and its influence on cognition, emotion, and motor behavior. These findings are increasingly being translated into clinical settings, where embodiment-based interventions are emerging in rehabilitation, chronic pain management, eating disorders, prosthesis embodiment, emotion regulation and virtual reality based therapy. Despite this progress, basic and clinical research often remain disconnected. This Research Topic aims to bridge experimental protocol and clinical medicine by showcasing studies that translate discoveries on body representation into innovative diagnostic, rehabilitative, and therapeutic approaches.This Research Topic seeks to collect high-quality studies investigating how experimental research on body representation can inform clinical practice. We welcome contributions exploring the mechanisms and clinical applications of body swap illusions, body ownership, sense of embodiment, and body cognition across psychological, neurological, and medical conditions. Our goal is to foster interdisciplinary dialogue between experimental researchers and clinicians practices, identify evidence-based embodiment interventions, and promote translational approaches that improve patient assessment, rehabilitation, and treatment outcomes. By integrating laboratory and clinical research, this collection aims to advance embodied medicine and stimulate the development of innovative, patient-centered therapeutic strategies.We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Brief Research Reports, and Perspective articles. This Research Topic focuses on body perception and body representation as fundamental constructs underlying human cognition, action, and health. We invite contributions investigating experimental paradigms such as body swap illusions, body ownership, sense of embodiment, body cognition, and multisensory integration that deepen our understanding of body perception and demonstrate their translational value for clinical practice. We encourage studies showing how laboratory-based research can inform innovative assessment tools and therapeutic interventions across a range of conditions, including motor rehabilitation, chronic and phantom limb pain, eating disorders, movement disorders, prosthesis embodiment, and digital health applications, also those involving virtual and augmented reality. Submissions should emphasize methodological rigor and clearly demonstrate how experimental findings can be translated into clinically meaningful outcomes and future therapeutic strategies. Topic editors: Sara Ventura, Giulia Corno Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/84057/from-experimental-body-representation-to-clinical-practice-translating-body-swap-illusions-into-medicine