Multi-Sensory and Sensorimotor Foundation of Bodily Self-Consciousness – An Interdisciplinary Approach

Abstract

Scientific investigations on the nature of the self have so far focused on high-level mechanisms. Recent evidence, however, suggests that low-level bottom-up mechanisms of multi-sensory integration play a fundamental role in encoding specific components of bodily self-consciousness, such as self-location and first-person perspective (Blanke and Metzinger, 2009). Self-location and first-person perspective are abnormal in neurological patients suffering from out-of-body experiences (Blanke et al., 2004), and can be manipulated experimentally in healthy subjects by imposing multi-sensory conflicts (Lenggenhager et al., 2009). Activity of the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) reflects experimentally induced changes in self-location and first-person perspective (Ionta et al., 2011), and dysfunctions in TPJ are causally associated with out-of-body experiences (Blanke et al., 2002). We argue that TPJ is one of the key areas for multi-sensory integration of bodily self-consciousness, that its levels of activity reflect the experience of the conscious “I” as embodied and localized within bodily space, and that these mechanisms can be systematically investigated using state of the art technologies such as robotics, virtual reality, and non-invasive neuroimaging.

Amputation and prosthesis implantation shape body and peripersonal space representations

“…The complexity and richness of these phantom limb phenomena is hardly explainable as resulting only from cortical reorganization in unimodal primary cortices. Rather, they suggest an involvement of multisensory body representations, which integrate the continuous flow of information from different sensory modalities in order to give raise to the experience of the body and its parts4142. Surprisingly little is known yet about the extent to which multisensory body and space representations are dependent on the structure of the physical body and are affected by limb loss.…”

Real world navigation independence in the early blind correlates with differential brain activity associated with virtual navigation

“…Activation within TPJ has been previously shown a variety of cognitive tasks (see (Decety and Grezes, 2006)), including mentalizing the thoughts of others (Saxe and Kanwisher, 2003), autobiographical memory (Spreng, et al, 2009), cross-modal sensory integration (Downar, et al, 2000), and self-location and first-person perspective (Ionta, et al, 2011a; Ionta, et al, 2011b). Here, we propose that TPJ is implicated in egocentric based navigation and furthermore, may serve as a marker of independent navigation ability.…”

Meditative Movement for Depression and Anxiety

“…Visual, interoceptive, and kinesthetic imagery can produce significant, widespread, and lasting changes in the brain. Motor imagery is known to activate areas of the brain responsible for generating internal sensations, such as the posterior parietal cortex and the pre-motor and supplementary motor areas (150–152). Visualization can improve motor performance significantly (149, 153), and increase muscle strength (154).…”