Building the bodily self-awareness: Evidence for the convergence between interoceptive and exteroceptive information in a multilevel kernel density analysis study.
Author: Salvato G1,2,3, Richter F4, Sedeño L5,6, Bottini G1,2,3, Paulesu E7,8
Affiliation:
1Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
2Centre of Cognitive Neuropsychology, ASST Grande Ospedale Metropolitano, Niguarda Hospital, Milan, Italy.
3NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milan, Italy.
4Department of Psychology, Universität zu Köln, Cologne, Germany.
5Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience (LPEN), Institute of Translational and Cognitive Neuroscience (INCyT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
6National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
7Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
8IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi, Milan, Italy.
Conference/Journal: Hum Brain Mapp.
Date published: 2019 Oct 14
Other:
Special Notes: doi: 10.1002/hbm.24810. [Epub ahead of print] , Word Count: 191
Exteroceptive and interoceptive signals shape and sustain the bodily self-awareness. The existence of a set of brain areas, supporting the integration of information coming from the inside and the outside of the body in building the sense of bodily self-awareness has been postulated, yet the evidence remains limited, a matter of discussion never assessed quantitatively. With the aim of unrevealing where in the brain interoceptive and exteroceptive signals may converge, we performed a meta-analysis on imaging studies of the sense of body ownership, modulated by external visuotactile stimulation, and studies on interoception, which involves the self-awareness for internal bodily sensations. Using a multilevel kernel density analysis, we found that processing of stimuli of the two domains converges primarily in the supramarginal gyrus bilaterally. Furthermore, we found a right-lateralized set of areas, including the precentral and postcentral, and superior temporal gyri. We discuss these results and propose this set of areas as ideal candidates to match multiple body-related signals contributing to the creation of a multidimensional representation of the bodily self.
© 2019 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
KEYWORDS: bodily self; body awareness; body ownership; interoception
PMID: 31609042 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24810
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