The role of the right temporo-parietal junction in maintaining a coherent sense of one’s body
Abstract
We constantly feel, see and move our body, and have no doubt that it is our own. The brain possesses a distinction between the body and the objects in the outside world. This distinction may be based on a process that monitors whether sensations, events and objects should be attributed to one's body or not. We controlled whether an external object was represented as part of the body or not, by experimentally inducing a bodily illusion using correlated visual and tactile stimulation. We then studied the role of right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ) in the processing of multisensory events that may or may not be attributed to one's body. Disruption of rTPJ using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) made the distinction between what may or may not be part of one's body on the basis of multisensory evidence more ambiguous, suggesting that the rTPJ is actively involved in maintaining a coherent sense of one's body, distinct from external, non-corporeal, objects.
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TMS applied over the TPJ facilitates the experience of ownership for non-corporeal objects, suggesting that interfering with sensory processing at the TPJ can disrupt the test-for-fit processes and increases the likelihood of self-attributing non-corporeal objects into one's body schema.
“Indeed, TMS applied over the TPJ facilitates the experience of ownership for non-corporeal objects, suggesting that interfering with sensory processing at the TPJ can disrupt the test-for-fit processes and increases the likelihood of selfattributing non-corporeal objects into one's body schema (Tsakiris, Costantini, & Haggard, 2008).”
From Bodily ownership and self-location: Components of bodily self-consciousness (2013) · cites this paper as Tsakiris et al., 2008
The right TPJ has been shown to engage in filtering multisensory percepts that may be assigned to one's own body or not, and in maintaining a 1st person perspective.
“Finally, the right TPJ has been shown to engage in the filtering of multisensory percepts that may be assigned to one’s own body or not [63] and in the maintenance of a 1st person perspective [64].”
From The other in me: interpersonal multisensory stimulation changes the mental representation of the self (2012) · cites this paper as [63]
The temporoparietal junction plays a critical role in interoception and multisensory integration, mediating the sense of a bodily image or self.
“At the neuroanatomical level, the temporoparietal junction plays a critical role in interoception and multisensory integration, thus mediating the sense of a bodily image/self ( 39 , 46 , 47 ).”
From Prodromal dreams (2025) · cites this paper as [47]
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- Authors
- Tsakiris, M., Costantini, M., & Haggard, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Chieti-Pescara (IT)
- University College London (GB)
- Venue
- Neuropsychologia
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2008-10
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 3014-3018
- ISSN
- 0028-3932 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2130560435
- Cited by
- 278
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 25 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 36.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuropsychologia (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Royal Holloway Digital Repository (Royal Holloway University of London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca
- Fundação Bial
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
- Keywords
- right temporoparietal junction, body ownership, multisensory integration, body schema, bodily illusions, transcranial magnetic stimulation, self-other distinction
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Awareness, Body Image, Female, Hand, Humans, Kinesthesis, Functional Laterality, Male, Parietal Lobe, Reference Values, Self Concept, Temporal Lobe, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
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