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Cited by 271Virtual Reality Applications and ImpactsSpatial Neglect and Hemispheric DysfunctionPsychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Body ownership and embodiment: vestibular and multisensory mechanisms

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Lopez, C., Halje, P., Blanke, O.·2008·Neurophysiologie Clinique/Clinical Neurophysiology
DOI 10.1016/j.neucli.2007.12.006
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Abstract

Body ownership and embodiment are two fundamental mechanisms of self-consciousness. The present article reviews neurological data about paroxysmal illusions during which body ownership and embodiment are affected differentially: autoscopic phenomena (out-of-body experience, heautoscopy, autoscopic hallucination, feeling-of-a-presence) and the room tilt illusion. We suggest that autoscopic phenomena and room tilt illusion are related to different types of failures to integrate body-related information (vestibular, proprioceptive and tactile cues) in addition to a mismatch between vestibular and visual references. In these patients, altered body ownership and embodiment has been shown to occur due to pathological activity at the temporoparietal junction and other vestibular-related areas arguing for a key importance of vestibular processing. We also review the possibilities of manipulating body ownership and embodiment in healthy subjects through exposition to weightlessness as well as caloric and galvanic stimulation of the peripheral vestibular apparatus. In healthy subjects, disturbed self-processing might be related to interference of vestibular stimulation with vestibular cortex leading to disintegration of bodily information and altered body ownership and embodiment. We finally propose a differential contribution of the vestibular cortical areas to the different forms of altered body ownership and embodiment.

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  • The vestibular system is a subconscious system that consistently monitors one's position in gravitational space through the simultaneous acquisition of exteroceptive and interoceptive sensory information at the level of the brainstem vestibular nuclei.

    “In addition, the vestibular system is a subconscious system that consistently monitors one’s position in gravitational space through the simultaneous acquisition of exteroceptive and interoceptive sensory information at the level of the brainstem vestibular nuclei (Guldin and Grüsser, 1998; Lopez et al., 2008; Pfeiffer et al., 2014).”

    From How Processing of Sensory Information From the Internal and External Worlds Shape the Perception and Engagement With the World in the Aftermath of Trauma: Implications for PTSD (2021) · cites this paper as Lopez et al., 2008

    Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 2 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

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  • Exteroceptive sensory information is continuously acquired from the environment to inform the relationship between one's self and surroundings.

    “Exteroceptive sensory information is continuously acquired from the environment to inform the relationship between one’s self and surroundings (Lopez et al., 2008; Hitier et al., 2014).”

    From How Processing of Sensory Information From the Internal and External Worlds Shape the Perception and Engagement With the World in the Aftermath of Trauma: Implications for PTSD (2021) · cites this paper as Lopez et al., 2008

    The section on the multisensory vestibular cortex says that visual, tactile, proprioceptive and vestibular cues are integrated to represent body location in space and self-location. This supports the claim that sensory information informs the relationship between self and surroundings, but the paper does not say that exteroceptive information is continuously acquired from the environment. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.78)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The vestibular system is important for global body representation and MPS because it encodes translation and rotation of the body in addition to orientation with respect to gravity.

    “Another sensory system important for global body representation and MPS is the vestibular system because it encodes translation and rotation of the body in addition to orientation with respect to gravity [45,46].”

    From Full-body illusions and minimal phenomenal selfhood (2009) · cites this paper as [45]

    The section on the multisensory vestibular cortex links vestibular cues to body movement, body position in space, and an accurate representation of body location. The section on microgravity also describes illusory rotation, translation, and verticality. These passages support the body-representation rationale, but our copy does not establish the claimed importance of the vestibular system for MPS specifically. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Autoscopic phenomena show that not only identification with and localization of body parts but also the conscious representation of the entire body and MPS can be disturbed.

    “Autoscopic phenomena show that not only identification with and localization of body parts but also the conscious representation of the entire body and MPS can be disturbed [45] (Box 2).”

    From Full-body illusions and minimal phenomenal selfhood (2009) · cites this paper as [45]

  • The TPJ is an important multisensory area, integrating inputs from tactile, proprioceptive, visual, and vestibular systems.

    “The TPJ is an important multisensory area, integrating inputs from the tactile, proprioceptive and visual systems, and, critically, from the vestibular system (Blanke & Arzy, 2005;Lopez & Blanke, 2011;Lopez, Halje, & Blanke, 2008).”

    From Bodily ownership and self-location: Components of bodily self-consciousness (2013) · cites this paper as Lopez, Halje, & Blanke, 2008

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Cites

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4 of the 124 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 7

  1. [22]22. Bradford DT. Autoscopic hallucinations and disordered self- embodiment. Acta Neuropsychol 2005;3(3):120-89.
  2. [23]23. Brandt C, Brechtelsbauer D, Bien CG, Reiners K. Out-of-body experience as possible seizure symptom in a patient with a right parietal lesion. Nervenarzt 2005;76(10):1259, 61-2.
  3. [31]31. Brugger P, Regard M, Landis T. Unilaterally felt ''presences'': the neuropsychiatry of one's invisible Doppelgänger. Neuropsychiatry Neuropsychol Behav Neurol 1996;9(2): 114-22.
  4. [73]73. Jasper K. Über leibhafte Bewusstheiten (Bewusstheit- stäuschungen), ein psychopathologisches Elementarsymp- tom. Z Pathopsychol 1913;2:150-61.
  5. [81]81. Legrand D. Pre-reflexive self-consciousness: on being bodily in the world. Janus Head 2007;9(2):493-519.
  6. [86]86. Lopez C, Blanke O. Neuropsychology and neurophysiology of self-consciousness. Multisensory and vestibular mecha- nisms. In: Holderegger A, Sitter-Liver B, Hess CW, Rager G, editors. Hirnforschung und Menschenbild. Beiträge zur inter- disziplinären Verständigung. Fribourg and Schwabe, Basel: Academic Press; 2007. p. 183-206.
  7. [91]91. Metzinger T. Being No One, 3. Cambridge: MIT Press; 2003.

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Authors
Lopez, C., Halje, P., & Blanke, O.
Affiliations
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
Corresponding author
Blanke, O.
ORCID
Venue
Neurophysiologie Clinique/Clinical Neurophysiology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2008-06
Volume
38
Issue
3
Pages
149-161
ISSN
0987-7053 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.neucli.2007.12.006
OpenAlex
W2091892781
Semantic Scholar
66a6bd65c9f5420f7ca4fd58c630852054e1e99b
Cited by
270
References
124
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 14
FWCI
3.04
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Neurophysiologie Clinique (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
  • Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion)
  • Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation
  • Cogito Foundation
  • Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (112493, 3100A0)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Spatial Neglect and Hemispheric Dysfunction
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
Keywords
body ownership, embodiment, self-consciousness, out-of-body experiences, vestibular processing, multisensory integration, temporoparietal junction, proprioception, tactile cues, microgravity, caloric test, galvanic stimulation, vestibular cortex
MeSH terms
Animals, Body Image, Gravitation, Hallucinations, Humans, Illusions, Physical Stimulation, Sensation, Somatosensory Cortex, Vestibule, Labyrinth

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