Body Scheme Disorders following Stroke and Assessment in Occupational Therapy

Abstract

Disorders of neural body scheme are common perceptual sequelae following hemiplegia. Such disorders affect performance of voluntary movements and quality of functional performance adversely. This article provides a comprehensive definition of body scheme and explains its development, maintenance and newel basis. It further explains the distortions of body scheme and classifies the syndromes following hemiplegia, with implications for occupational therapy. Based on published evidence, the article discusses the strengths and limitations of various body scheme measurements and concludes with recommendations that, first, further studies are required to establish the validity of existing body scheme assessments and, secondly, there is a need for a study comparing neurologically unimpaired adults with neurologically impaired adults to determine the impact of body scheme on functional performance.