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The experience of empathy for pain is underpinned by sensorimotor and affective dimensions which, although interconnected, are at least in part behaviorally and neurally distinct. Spinal cord injuries (SCI) induce a massive, below‐lesion level, sensorimotor body–brain disconnection. This condition may make it possible to test whether sensorimotor deprivation alters specific dimensions of empathic reactivity to observed pain. To explore this issue, we asked SCI people with paraplegia and healthy controls to observe videos of painful or neutral stimuli administered to a hand (intact) or a foot (deafferented). The stimuli were displayed by means of a virtual reality set‐up and seen from a first person (1PP) or third person (3PP) visual perspective. A number of measures were recorded ranging from explicit behaviors like explicit verbal reports on the videos, to implicit measures of muscular activity (like EMG from the corrugator and zygomatic muscles that may represent a proxy of sensorimotor empathy) and of autonomic reactivity (like the electrodermal response and Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia that may represent a general proxy of affective empathy). While no across group differences in explicit verbal reports about the pain stimuli were found, SCI people exhibited reduced facial muscle reactivity to the stimuli applied to the foot (but not the hand) seen from the 1PP. Tellingly, the corrugator activity correlated with SCI participants' neuropathic pain. There were no across group differences in autonomic reactivity suggesting that SCI lesions may affect sensorimotor dimensions connected to empathy for pain. To explore how sensorimotor deprivation affects empathic reactivity we recorded facial muscle (FM) and autonomic reactivity (AR) in controls and people with spinal cord injury (SCI) watching painful stimuli applied to a virtual, intact (hand) or deprived (foot) body part. SCI participants displayed reduced FM when viewing foot stimuli. AR was not differentially affected by group, stimulus or body part indicating that SCI affects sensorimotor rather than affective pain empathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study evaluates the heart rate variability (HRV), body composition parameters, physical activity level means by International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), and sleep quality [means by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)] in non-obese, overweight, and obese individuals. Methods: 51 adults were included in this study. The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 39 years old, and they underwent vital signs measurement, nutritional status classification means body mass index (BMI), and body composition through the bioelectrical impedance (BIA), questionnaires (IPAQ and PSQI), and HRV measurement. Results: The most influenced body composition variables in the normal weight, overweight, and obese groups were age, body weight, BMI, resting metabolic rate, visceral fat level (VFL), skeletal muscle mass, body fat mass (BFM), body fat percentage, and minerals with p < 0.05, for all comparisons. The stress index (SI) was the HRV variable most influenced by different levels of BMI p < 0.05. The PSQI was more influenced by body water, lean mass, fat-free mass, and proteins, with p < 0.05. Furthermore, SI was the only HRV index that negatively correlated (r = − 0.395; p < 0.05) with physical activity (PA) and BFM (r = − 0.409; p < 0.05). Conclusion: Obesity increases stress and sleep disturbance and is reduced with increased PA levels. In addition, PA level was negatively associated with SI and BFM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]