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How the brain represents the body: insights from neurophysiology and psychology.
Abstract
Abstract Abstract. To reach for the computer mouse, to sit upright in a chair or hold a journal in order to read it, indeed, to do most of the actions that we commonly perform, we rely on a representation of the spatial con1guration of the body. How and where in the brain is the body represented and what are the psychological properties of this body schema? In this article we review 1rst the neurophysiology and then the psychology of the body representation. One 1nding that has emerged from both approaches is that the body representation is not merely a registration of proprioceptive inputs about joint angle. Instead, the brain contains a sophisticated model of the body that is continually updated on the basis of multimodal input including vision, somesthesis, and motor feedback. Neurophysiological studies in the monkey brain show that parietal area 5 is a critical node for processing the body’s con1guration. Neurons in area 5 combine signals from different modalities in order to represent limb position and movement. Psychological studies show that the body schema is used to cross-reference between different senses, as a basis for spatial cognition and for movement planning.
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“The body schema contains layers of information about the body, about its stable properties such as its shape and hinged structure and about more dynamic properties such as forces and velocities (Head and Holmes, 1911; Shadmehr and Mussa-Ivaldi, 1994; Shadmehr and Moussavi, 2000; Graziano and Botvinick, 2002; Holmes and Spence, 2004; Hwang and Shadmehr, 2005).”
From The Attention Schema Theory: A Foundation for Engineering Artificial Consciousness (2017) · cites this paper as Graziano and Botvinick, 2002
In the citing paper
“Having the experience of being the owner of one's body is clearly adaptive, and its function probably relates to the problem of localising and correctly identifying oneself in the sensory environment [9], [10], a problem faced by all central nervous systems [11].”
From If I were you: Perceptual illusion of body swapping (2008) · cites this paper as [9]
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Tactile Sensing—From Humans to Humanoids
Dahiya, R., Giorgio Metta, B., Valle, M., & Sandini, G. (2009) · IEEE Transactions on Robotics · doi:10.1109/tro.2009.2033627 · Cited by 1,890
The rubber hand illusion revisited: visuotactile integration and self-attribution
Tsakiris, M., & Haggard, P. (2005) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance · doi:10.1037/0096-1523.31.1.80 · Cited by 1,328
Maravita, A., & Iriki, A. (2004) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2003.12.008 · Cited by 1,214
If I were you: Perceptual illusion of body swapping
Petkova, V. I., & Ehrsson, H. H. (2008) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003832 · Cited by 953
Moving a Rubber Hand that Feels Like Your Own: A Dissociation of Ownership and Agency
Kalckert, A., & Ehrsson, H. H. (2012) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2012.00040 · Cited by 742
Metadata
- Authors
- Graziano, M. S. A., & Botvinick, M. M.
- Venue
- Common Mechanisms in Perception and Action
- Publisher
- Oxford University PressOxford
- Published
- 2002-02-07
- Pages
- 136-157
- OpenAlex
- W4388285282
- Cited by
- 174
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 3.69
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
- Keywords
- representation of the body, body schema, proprioception, multimodal integration, cross-modal correspondence, spatial cognition, motor planning, limb position, somatosensory perception, vision, motor feedback
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