Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The body in the brain revisited

  • Review
  • Published:
Experimental Brain Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Corporeal awareness is a difficult concept which refers to perception, knowledge and evaluation of one’s own body as well as of other bodies. We discuss here some controversies regarding the significance of the concepts of body schema and body image, as variously entertained by different authors, for the understanding of corporeal awareness, and consider some newly proposed alternatives. We describe some recent discoveries of cortical areas specialized for the processing of bodily forms and bodily actions, as revealed by neuroimaging, neurophysiological, and lesion studies. We further describe new empirical and theoretical evidence for the importance of interoception, in addition to exteroception and proprioception, for corporeal awareness, and discuss how itch, a typical interoceptive input, has been wrongly excluded from the classic concept of the proprioceptive–tactile body schema. Finally, we consider the role of the insular cortex as the terminal cortical station of interoception and other bodily signals, along with Craig’s proposal that the human insular cortex sets our species apart from other species by supporting consciousness of the body and the self. We conclude that corporeal awareness depends on the spatiotemporally distributed activity of many bodies in the brain, none of which is isomorphic with the actual body.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aglioti S, Smania N, Manfredi M, Berlucchi G (1996) Disownership of left hand and objects related to it in a patient with right brain damage. NeuroReport 8:293–296

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aleong R, Paus T (2009) Neural correlates of human body perception. J Cogn Neurosci (Epub ahead of print)

  • Anema HA, van Zandvoort MJ, de Haan EH, Kappelle LJ, de Kort PL, Jansen BP, Dijkerman HC (2009) A double dissociation between somatosensory processing for perception and action. Neuropsychologia 47:1615–1620

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Astafiev SV, Stanley CM, Shulman GL, Corbetta M (2004) Extrastriate body area in human occipital cortex responds to the performance of motor actions. Nature Neurosci 7:542–548

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baier B, Karnath HO (2008) Tight link between our sense of limb ownership and self-awareness of actions. Stroke 39:486–488

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Berlucchi G, Aglioti S (1997) The body in the brain: neural bases of corporeal awareness. Trends Neurosci 20:560–564

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bermúdez JL (2009) Self: body awareness and self-awareness. In: Banks W (ed) Encyclopedia of consciousness. Elsevier Academic Press, Amsterdam, pp 289–300

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Blanke O, Metzinger T (2009) Full-body illusions and minimal phenomenal selfhood. Trends Cogn Sci 13:7–13

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blanke O, Mohr C (2005) Out-of-body experience, heautoscopy, and autoscopic hallucination of neurological origin implications for neurocognitive mechanisms of corporeal awareness and self-consciousness. Brain Res Brain Res Rev 50:184–199

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Candidi M, Urgesi C, Ionta S, Aglioti SM (2008) Virtual lesion of ventral premotor cortex impairs visual perception of biomechanically possible but not impossible actions. Soc Neurosci 3:388–400

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cardinali L, Frassinetti F, Brozzoli C, Urquizar C, Roy AC, Farnè A (2009) Tool-use induces morphological updating of the body schema. Curr Biol 19:R478–R479

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carruthers G (2008a) Types of body representation and the sense of embodiment. Conscious Cogn 17:1302–1316

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carruthers G (2008b) Reply to Tsakiris and Fotopoulou “Is my body the sum of online and offline body representations?” Conscious Cogn 17:1321–1323

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chan AW, Peelen MV, Downing PE (2004) The effect of viewpoint on body representation in the extrastriate body area. NeuroReport 15:2407–2410

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cleret de Langavant L, Trinkler I, Cesaro P, Bachoud-Lévi AC (2009) Heterotopagnosia: when I point at parts of your body. Neuropsychologia 47:1745–1755

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Corradi-Dell’Acqua C, Hesse MD, Rumiati RI, Fink GR (2008) Where is a nose with respect to a foot? The left posterior parietal cortex processes spatial relationships among body parts. Cereb Cortex 18:2879–2890

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Coslett HB, Saffran EM, Schwoebel J (2002) Knowledge of the human body: a distinct semantic domain. Neurology 59:357–363

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Craig AD (2009) How do you feel-now? The anterior insula and human awareness. Nat Rev Neurosci 10:59–70

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Critchley M (1979) Corporeal awareness: body image; body scheme. In: Critchley M (ed) The divine banquet of the brain. Raven Press, New York, pp 92–105

    Google Scholar 

  • Critchley HD (2005) Neural mechanisms of autonomic, affective, and cognitive integration. J Comp Neurol 493:154–166

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Culham JC, Kanwisher NG (2001) Neuroimaging of cognitive functions in human parietal cortex. Curr Opin Neurobiol 11:157–163

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • David N, Cohen MX, Newen A, Bewernick BH, Shah NJ, Fink GR, Vogeley K (2007) The extrastriate cortex distinguishes between the consequences of one’s own and others’ behavior. Neuroimage 36:1004–1014

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • David N, Jansen M, Cohen MX, Osswald K, Molnar-Szakacs I, Newen A, Vogeley K, Paus T (2008) Disturbances of self-other distinction after stimulation of the extrastriate body area in the human brain. Soc Neurosci 21:1–9

    Google Scholar 

  • De Vignemont F (2007) Habeas corpus: the sense of ownership of one’s own body. Mind Lang 22:427–449

    Google Scholar 

  • Devue C, Collette F, Balteau E, Degueldre C, Luxen A, Maquet P, Brédart S (2007) Here I am: the cortical correlates of visual self-recognition. Brain Res 1143:169–182

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dijkerman HC, de Haan EH (2007) Somatosensory processes subserving perception and action. Behav Brain Sci 2:189–201 Discussion 201–239

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Downing PE, Jiang Y, Shuman M, Kanwisher N (2001) A cortical area selective for visual processing of the human body. Science 293:2470–2473

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Farrer C, Frith CD (2002) Experiencing oneself vs another person as being the cause of an action: the neural correlates of the experience of agency. Neuroimage 15:596–603

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Felician O, Anton JL, Nazarian B, Roth M, Roll JP, Romaiguère P (2009) Where is your shoulder? Neural correlates of localizing others’ body parts. Neuropsychologia 47:1909–1916

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fotopoulou A, Rudd A, Holmes P, Kopelman M (2009) Self-observation reinstates motor awareness in anosognosia for hemiplegia. Neuropsychologia 47:1256–1260

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frith C (2005) The self in action: lessons from delusions of control. Conscious Cogn 14:752–770

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher S (2005) How the body shapes the mind. Oxford University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher S, Meltzoff AN (1996) The earliest sense of self and others: Merleau-Ponty and recent developmental studies. Philos Psychol 9:211–233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gauthier I, Tarr MJ, Moylan J, Skudlarski P, Gore JC, Anderson AW (2000) The fusiform “face area” is part of a network that processes faces at the individual level. J Cogn Neurosci 12:495–504

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Giummarra MJ, Gibson SJ, Georgiou-Karistianis N, Bradshaw JL (2007) Central mechanisms in phantom limb perception: the past, present and future. Brain Res Rev 54:219–232

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Giummarra MJ, Gibson SJ, Georgiou-Karistianis N, Bradshaw JL (2008) Mechanisms underlying embodiment, disembodiment and loss of embodiment. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 32:143–160

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goldenberg G (2002) Goldstein and Gelb’s case Schn.—a classic case in neuropsychology? In: Code C, Wallesch CW, Joanette Y, Roch-Lecours A (eds) Classic cases in neuropsychology, vol 2. Psychology Press, Hove, pp 281–299

    Google Scholar 

  • Graziano M, Botvinik M (2001) How the brain represents the body: insights from neurophysiology and psychology. In: Prinz W, Hommel B (eds) Common mechanisms in perception and action, attention and performance XIX. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 136–157

    Google Scholar 

  • Haggard P, Wolpert DM (2005) Disorders of body scheme. In: Freund H-J, Jeannerod M, Hallett M, Leiguarda R (eds) Higher-order motor disorders: from neuroanatomy and neurobiology to clinical neurology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 261–272

  • Head H, Holmes G (1911/12) Sensory disturbances from cerebral lesion. Brain 34:102–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodzic A, Kaas A, Muckli L, Stirn A, Singer W (2009) Distinct cortical networks for the detection and identification of human body. Neuroimage 45:1264–1271

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Holmes NP, Spence C (2004) The body schema and the multisensory representation(s) of peripersonal space. Cogn Process 5:94–105

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Holmes NP, Spence C (2006) Beyond the body schema. In: Knoblich G, Thornton IM, Grosjean M, Shiffrar M (eds) Human body perception from the inside out. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 15–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanwisher N, McDermott J, Chun MM (1997) The fusiform “face area” is part of a network that processes faces at the individual level. J Neurosci 17:4302–4311

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Karnath HO, Baier B, Nägele T (2005) Awareness of the functioning of one’s own limbs mediated by the insular cortex? J Neurosci 25:7134–7138

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Keenan JP, Gallup GG, Falk D Jr (2003) The face in the mirror: the search for the origins of consciousness. Harper Collins, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kemmerer D, Tranel D (2008) Searching for the elusive neural substrates of body part terms: a neuropsychological study. Cogn Neuropsychol 25:601–629

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kitada R, Johnsrude IS, Kochiyama T, Lederman SJ (2008) Functional specialization and convergence in the occipito-temporal cortex supporting haptic and visual identification of human faces and body parts: an fMRI study. J Cogn Neurosci (Epub ahead of print)

  • Lamm C, Decety J (2008) Is the extrastriate body area (EBA) sensitive to the perception of pain in others? Cereb Cortex 18:2369–2373

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Leknes SG, Bantick S, Willis CM, Wilkinson JD, Wise RG, Tracey I (2007) Itch and motivation to scratch: an investigation of the central and peripheral correlates of allergen- and histamine-induced itch in humans. J Neurophysiol 97:415–422

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Liu J, Harris A, Kanwisher N (2009) Perception of face parts and face configurations: an fMRI study. J Cogn Neurosci (Epub ahead of print)

  • Löken LS, Wessberg J, Morrison I, McGlone F, Olausson H (2009) Coding of pleasant touch by unmyelinated afferents in humans. Nat Neurosci 12:547–548

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maravita A, Iriki A (2004) Tools for the body (schema). Trends Cogn Sci 8:79–86

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Marcel AJ, Tegnér R, Nimmo-Smith I (2004) Anosognosia for plegia: specificity, extension, partiality and disunity of bodily unawareness. Cortex 40:19–40

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mayer A, Kudar K, Bretz K, Tihanyi J (2008) Body schema and body awareness of amputees. Prosthet Orthot Int 32:363–382

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meltzoff AN, Moore MK (1977) Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates. Science 198:75–78

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Melzack R (2005) Evolution of the neuromatrix theory of pain. The Prithvi Raj Lecture: presented at the third World Congress of World Institute of Pain, Barcelona 2004. Pain Pract 5:85–94

  • Merleau-Ponty M (1945) Phénoménologie de la Perception. Gallimard, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Milner D, Goodale MA (1995) The visual brain in action. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Moro V, Urgesi C, Pernigo S, Lanteri P, Pazzaglia M, Aglioti SM (2008) The neural basis of body form and body action agnosia. Neuron 60:235–246

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morris JP, Pelphrey KA, McCarthy G (2006) Occipitotemporal activation evoked by the perception of human bodies is modulated by the presence or absence of the face. Neuropsychologia 44:1919–1927

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Myers A, Sowden PT (2008) Your hand or mine? The extrastriate body area. Neuroimage 42:1669–1677

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Neisser U (1993) The perceived self: ecological and interpersonal sources of self knowledge. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Nguyen DK, Nguyen DB, Malak R, Leroux JM, Carmant L, Saint-Hilaire JM, Giard N, Cossette P, Bouthillier A (2009) Revisiting the role of the insula in refractory partial epilepsy. Epilepsia 50:510–520

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Olausson HW, Cole J, Vallbo A, McGlone F, Elam M, Krämer HH, Rylander K, Wessberg J, Bushnell MC (2008a) Unmyelinated tactile afferents have opposite effects on insular and somatosensory cortical processing. Neurosci Lett 436:128–132

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Olausson H, Wessberg J, Morrison I, McGlone F, Vallbo A (2008b) The neurophysiology of unmyelinated tactile afferents. Neurosci Biobehav Rev (Epub Oct 8 2008)

  • Orfei MD, Robinson RG, Prigatano GP, Starkstein S, Rüsch N, Bria P, Caltagirone C, Spalletta G (2007) Anosognosia for hemiplegia after stroke is a multifaceted phenomenon: a systematic review of the literature. Brain 130:3075–3090

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Paillard J (1999) Body schema and body image—a double dissociation in deafferented patients. In: Gantchev GN, Mori S, Massion J (eds) Motor control, today and tomorrow. Academic Publishing House, Sophia

    Google Scholar 

  • Paillard J, Michel F, Stelmach G (1983) Localization without content. A tactile analogue of ‘blind sight’. Arch Neurol 40:548–551

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peelen MV, Downing PE (2005) Selectivity for the human body in the fusiform gyrus. J Neurophysiol 93:603–608

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peelen MV, Downing PE (2007) The neural basis of visual body perception. Nat Rev Neurosci 8:636–648

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peelen MV, Wiggett AJ, Downing PE (2006) Patterns of fMRI activity dissociate overlapping functional brain areas that respond to biological motion. Neuron 49:815–822

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peelen MV, Atkinson AP, Andersson F, Vuilleumier P (2007) Emotional modulation of body-selective visual areas. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2:274–283

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pitcher D, Charles L, Devlin JT, Walsh V, Duchaine B (2009) Triple dissociation of faces, bodies, and objects in extrastriate cortex. Curr Biol 19:319–332

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pourtois G, Peelen MV, Spinelli L, Seeck M, Vuilleumier P (2007) Direct intracranial recording of body-selective responses in human extrastriate visual cortex. Neuropsychologia 45:2621–2625

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Prior H, Schwarz A, Güntürkün O (2008) Mirror-induced behavior in the magpie (Pica pica): evidence of self-recognition. PLoS Biol 6(8):e202

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ramachandran VS, Altschuler EL (2009) The use of visual feedback, in particular mirror visual feedback, in restoring brain function. Brain 132:1693–1710

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reed CL (2002) What is the body schema? In: Printz W, Meltzoff A (eds) The imitative mind: development, evolution, and brain bases. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 233–243

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Rizzolatti G, Craighero L (2004) The mirror-neuron system. Annu Rev Neurosci 27:169–192

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Saxe R, Jamal N, Powell L (2006) My body or yours? The effect of visual perspective on cortical body representations. Cereb Cortex 16:178–182

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarzlose RF, Baker CI, Kanwisher N (2005) Separate face and body selectivity on the fusiform gyrus. J Neurosci 25:11055–11059

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schwoebel J, Coslett HB (2005) Evidence for multiple, distinct representations of the human body. J Cogn Neurosci 17:543–553

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sherrington CS (1906) The integrative action of the nervous system. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT

    Google Scholar 

  • Sirigu A, Grafman J, Bressler K, Sunderland T (1991) Multiple representations contribute to body knowledge processing. Evidence from a case of autotopagnosia. Brain 114:629–642

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Slaughter V, Heron M (2004) Origins and early development of human body knowledge. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 69:1–102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spengler S, von Cramon DY, Brass M (2009) Was it me or was it you? How the sense of agency originates from ideomotor learning revealed by fMRI. Neuroimage 46:290–298

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sperry RW (1952) Neurology and the mind–brain problem. Am Sci 40:291–312

    Google Scholar 

  • Spinazzola L, Pia L, Folegatti A, Marchetti C, Berti A (2008) Modular structure of awareness for sensorimotor disorders: evidence from anosognosia for hemiplegia and anosognosia for hemianaesthesia. Neuropsychologia 46:915–926

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor JC, Wiggett AJ, Downing PE (2007) Functional MRI analysis of body and body part representations in the extrastriate and fusiform body areas. J Neurophysiol 98:1626–1633

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tsakiris M, Fotopoulou A (2008) Is my body the sum of online and offline body-representations? Conscious Cogn 17:1317–1320

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ungerleider LG, Mishkin M (1982) Two cortical visual systems. In: Ingle DJ, Goodale MA, Mansfield RJW (eds) Analysis of visual behavior. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 549–586

    Google Scholar 

  • Urgesi C, Berlucchi G, Aglioti SM (2004) Magnetic stimulation of extrastriate body area impairs visual processing of nonfacial body parts. Curr Biol 14:2130–2134

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Urgesi C, Candidi M, Ionta S, Aglioti SM (2007) Representation of body identity and body actions in extrastriate body area and ventral premotor cortex. Nat Neurosci 10:30–31

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Urgesi C, Moro V, Candidi M, Aglioti SM (2006) Mapping implied body actions in the human motor system. J Neurosci 26:7942–7949

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vallar G, Ronchi R (2009) Somatoparaphrenia: a body delusion. A review of the neuropsychological literature. Exp Brain Res 192:533–551

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • van de Riet WA, Grezes J, de Gelder B (2009) Specific and common brain regions involved in the perception of faces and bodies and the representation of their emotional expressions. Soc Neurosci 4:101–120

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Weiskrantz L (2009) Blindsight: a case study spanning 35 years and new developments, 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

G.B. is funded by Ministero Università e Ricerca of Italy. S.M.A is funded by Ministero Università e Ricerca of Italy, by Sapienza University of Rome and by IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Neuroscience-Italy, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

    Giovanni Berlucchi

  2. Department of Neural and Visual Sciences, Physiology Section, University of Verona, Strada Le Grazie 8, 37134, Verona, Italy

    Giovanni Berlucchi

  3. Department of Psychology and Study Center for Mental Functions, La Sapienza University of Rome and Santa Lucia Foundation, IRCCS, Rome, Italy

    Salvatore M. Aglioti

Authors
  1. Giovanni Berlucchi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Salvatore M. Aglioti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giovanni Berlucchi.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Berlucchi, G., Aglioti, S.M. The body in the brain revisited. Exp Brain Res 200, 25–35 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-009-1970-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-009-1970-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation