Multisensory mechanisms in temporo-parietal cortex support self-location and first-person perspective.


Autoria(s): Ionta S.; Heydrich L.; Lenggenhager B.; Mouthon M.; Fornari E.; Chapuis D.; Gassert R.; Blanke O.
Data(s)

2011

Resumo

Self-consciousness has mostly been approached by philosophical enquiry and not by empirical neuroscientific study, leading to an overabundance of diverging theories and an absence of data-driven theories. Using robotic technology, we achieved specific bodily conflicts and induced predictable changes in a fundamental aspect of self-consciousness by altering where healthy subjects experienced themselves to be (self-location). Functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) activity reflected experimental changes in self-location that also depended on the first-person perspective due to visuo-tactile and visuo-vestibular conflicts. Moreover, in a large lesion analysis study of neurological patients with a well-defined state of abnormal self-location, brain damage was also localized at TPJ, providing causal evidence that TPJ encodes self-location. Our findings reveal that multisensory integration at the TPJ reflects one of the most fundamental subjective feelings of humans: the feeling of being an entity localized at a position in space and perceiving the world from this position and perspective.

Identificador

http://serval.unil.ch/?id=serval:BIB_2350CE211137

isbn:1097-4199 (Electronic)

pmid:21521620

doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2011.03.009

isiid:000291073700016

Idioma(s)

en

Fonte

Neuron, vol. 70, no. 2, pp. 363-374

Tipo

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

article