Is Bodily Experience an Epiphenomenon of Multisensory Integration and Cognition?

Semiology of atypical bodily experiences.

“…Finally, it is now clear that body representations are plastic and influenced by cognitive dimensions. Future studies may therefore investigate the relations between bodily experience and cognitive processes that are not specific to the body, as bodily signals probably interact with “high-level” cognitive processes (Baumard & Osiurak, 2019; for a similar view on apraxia, see Baumard & Le Gall, 2021). As an example, tool use skills may contribute to the coding of the body schema, by modulating the peripersonal, reaching space (e.g., Maravita et al, 2003), and determining the configuration of body parts (e.g., the need to align the screwdriver with the screw determines the orientation and position of the hand on the screwdriver and hence the body posture; see the “categorical apprehension” and “technical reasoning” hypotheses; Goldenberg, 2009; Goldenberg & Spatt, 2009; Osiurak, 2014).…”

Body experience influences lexical-semantic knowledge of body parts in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy

“…Our results also suggested that the building of the lexical-semantic network for body parts and thus body image seems influenced by sensorimotor and visuoperceptual experiences. As suggested by Baumard and Osiurak (2019) , bodily experience develops in everyday life under the influence of language by thinking and talking about body parts and actions. Investigations about the relationship between language and action demonstrate the involvement of motor systems in the processing of action-related language ( Dalla Volta et al, 2009 ; Crivelli et al, 2018 ; Shebani and Pulvermüller, 2018 ).…”

Deafblindness, touch and COVID-19

“…The 2-metre social distancing rule enforced early in the pandemic imposed limitations above those experienced by sighted people. 7 For example, obtaining necessities or making simple contact with other people became impossible. The 2-metre distance can be frightening for someone relying on close proximity and touch as their only way of sensing the world.…”

“…Neuroscientists and psychologists have largely argued that our perception of events and objects comes from the integration of different types of information received from all our senses (see Baumard and Osiurak, 2019;Betti et al, 2021;Dehaene and Changeux, 2011;Faivre et al, 2017;Mudrik et al, 2014). The holistic experience of the senses and the process of meaning-making results from the vortex of all sensory inputs, giving us an understanding of the world as it is known.…”