Rehabilitation paradigms in congenital and acquired neurological disorders: quantitative and cognitive assessments, and prospective rehabilitative interventions

Sensorimotor integration is central to all the activities we distractedly perform daily: getting dressed, eating, moving around, interacting with people, learning and working. Furthermore, it is crucial in the perceptual and cognitive experience of our body. Alterations in the sensorimotor integration processes can arise from countless conditions affecting the central and peripheral nervous systems as well as from physiological ageing. Thus, the relevance of a deeper understanding of the multisensory integration mechanisms is a fundamental clinical and research goal in treating these conditions. In this thesis, three different clinical conditions sharing a sensorimotor integration impairment and the lack of a therapeutic gold standard are presented and discussed with a double purpose: first, to better characterize their sensorimotor integration impairments and etiopathogenetic processes; second, to propose new multidisciplinary rehabilitation approaches targeting each of them with particular focus on the bidirectional cognitive-motor interplay. As a result of this thesis, the sensorimotor integration mechanisms and the resulting body schema should be conceived as emergent properties of multiple brain circuits working synergically. As such, sensorimotor integration disorders require tailored, multidisciplinary intervention. Finally, the current most updated techniques to deal with sensorimotor integration disorders (e.g., robotic technologies) are presented alongside a new protocol proposal.