Shogo
TANAKA

"Embodiment and Narrativity after Stroke: A Phenomenological and Neuroscientific Approach to Patient Recovery" 

This project investigates the dynamic interplay between embodiment and narrativity in post-stroke rehabilitation, bringing together phenomenological inquiry and cognitive neuroscience. Following a stroke, motor impairment disrupts not only physical capacity but also a patient's sense of self. Exploring how patients reconstruct their identity through narrative practices, this project clarifies how these stories are entangled with neural plasticity and recovery outcomes. By correlating first-person narrative accounts with neuroscientific measures, it seeks to build an interdisciplinary model where narrative identity and the embodied self reciprocally shape one another. The expected outcomes include conceptual advances in theories of the self, empirical insights into recovery, and practical recommendations for integrating storytelling into therapeutic protocols, emphasizing that physical recovery and the reclamation of meaning are inseparable.