The role of the cerebellum in dynamic changes of the sense of body ownership: a study in patients with cerebellar degeneration
Abstract
The sense of the body is deeply rooted in humans, and it can be experimentally manipulated by inducing illusions in at least two aspects: a subjective feeling of ownership and a proprioceptive sense of limb position. Previous studies mapped these different aspects onto anatomically distinct neuronal regions, with the ventral premotor cortex processing subjective experience of ownership and the inferior parietal lobule processing proprioceptive calibration. Lines of evidence suggest an involvement also of the cerebellum, but its precise role is not clear yet. To investigate the contribution of the cerebellum in the sense of body ownership, we applied the rubber-hand illusion paradigm in 28 patients affected by neurodegenerative cerebellar ataxia, selectively involving the cerebellum, and in 26 age-matched control participants. The rubber hand illusion is established by synchronous stroking of the participants' real unseen hand and a visible fake hand. Short asynchronous stroking does not bring about the illusion. We tested the subjective experience of the illusion, evaluated through a questionnaire and the proprioceptive drift of the real unseen hand toward the viewed rubber hand. In patients with cerebellar ataxia, we observed reduced sense of the subjective illusory experience specifically after synchronous stroking. In contrast, the proprioceptive drift was enhanced after synchronous and after asynchronous stimulation. These findings support the contention that the mechanisms underlying the presence of the illusion and the proprioceptive drift may be differently affected in different conditions. Impairment of the subjective sense of the illusion in cerebellar patients might hint at an involvement of cerebellar-premotor networks, whereas the proprioceptive drift typically associated with synchronous stroking appears to rely on other circuits, likely involving the cerebellum and the parietal regions.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Patients with cerebellar ataxias showed an abnormally reduced sense of body ownership, evaluated by the rubber hand illusion experience.
“patients with cerebellar ataxias, a group of disorders characterized by cerebellar degeneration, showed an abnormally reduced sense of body ownership, evaluated by the rubber hand illusion experience (Fiorio et al., 2014).”
From The Forward Model: A Unifying Theory for the Role of the Cerebellum in Motor Control and Sense of Agency (2021) · cites this paper as Fiorio et al., 2014
Cites
The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh inventory
Oldfield, R. C. (1971) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/0028-3932(71)90067-4 · Cited by 35,900 · see citing works
Rubber hands ‘feel’ touch that eyes see
Botvinick, M., & Cohen, J. (1998) · Nature · doi:10.1038/35784 · Cited by 4,410 · see citing works
Scale for the assessment and rating of ataxia: Development of a new clinical scale
Schmitz-Hübsch, T., du Montcel, S. T., Baliko, L., Berciano, J., Boesch, S., Depondt, C., Giunti, P., Globas, C., Infante, J., Kang, J. S., et al. (2006) · Neurology · doi:10.1212/01.wnl.0000219042.60538.92 · Cited by 1,967 · see citing works
Self-citationBasal ganglia and cerebellar loops: motor and cognitive circuits
Middleton, F. (2000) · Brain Research Reviews · doi:10.1016/s0165-0173(99)00040-5 · Cited by 1,940 · see citing works
Cerebellum and nonmotor function
Strick, P. L., Dum, R. P., & Fiez, J. A. (2009) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.31.060407.125606 · Cited by 1,777 · see citing works
Schmahmann, J. D. (2004) · Journal of Neuropsychiatry · doi:10.1176/jnp.16.3.367 · Cited by 1,442 · see citing works
Stoodley, C. J., & Schmahmann, J. D. (2010) · Cortex · doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2009.11.008 · Cited by 1,360 · see citing works
That's my hand! Activity in premotor cortex reflects feeling of ownership of a limb
Ehrsson, H. H., Spence, C., & Passingham, R. E. (2004) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1097011 · Cited by 1,348 · see citing works
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 · see citing works
My body in the brain: A neurocognitive model of body-ownership.
Tsakiris, M. (2010) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.09.034 · Cited by 1,069 · see citing works
Manto, M. U., Bower, J. M., Conforto, A. B., Delgado-Garcia, J. M., da Guarda, S. N. F., Gerwig, M., Habas, C., Hagura, N., Ivry, R. B., Mariën, P., et al. (2011) · The Cerebellum · doi:10.1007/s12311-011-0331-9 · Cited by 996 · see citing works
The neural representation of time
Ivry, R. B., & Spencer, R. M. C. (2004) · Current Opinion in Neurobiology · doi:10.1016/j.conb.2004.03.013 · Cited by 827 · see citing works
Ehrsson, H. H., Holmes, N. P., & Passingham, R. E. (2005) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0800-05.2005 · Cited by 784 · see citing works
An unfolded map of the cerebellar dentate nucleus and its projections to the cerebral cortex
Dum, R. P., & Strick, P. L. (2003) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.00626.2002 · Cited by 684 · see citing works
The representation of temporal information in perception and motor control
Ivry, R. B. (1996) · Current Opinion in Neurobiology · doi:10.1016/s0959-4388(96)80037-7 · Cited by 639 · see citing works
Neural signatures of body ownership: a sensory network for bodily self-consciousness
Tsakiris, M., Hesse, M. D., Boy, C., Haggard, P., & Fink, G. R. (2007) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl131 · Cited by 625 · see citing works
Visual Capture of Touch: Out-of-the-Body Experiences With Rubber Gloves.
Pavani, F., Spence, C., & Driver, J. (2000) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00270 · Cited by 608 · see citing works
Clower, D. M., West, R. A., Lynch, J. C., & Strick, P. L. (2001) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.21-16-06283.2001 · Cited by 549 · see citing works
On the other hand: Dummy hands and peripersonal space
Makin, T. R., Holmes, N. P., & Ehrsson, H. H. (2008) · Behavioural Brain Research · doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2008.02.041 · Cited by 530 · see citing works
The Rubber Hand Illusion: feeling of ownership and proprioceptive drift do not go hand in hand
Rohde, M., Di Luca, M., & Ernst, M. O. (2011) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021659 · Cited by 486 · see citing works
Proske, U., & Gandevia, S. C. (2009) · The Journal of Physiology · doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2009.175372 · Cited by 423 · see citing works
Neural Correlates of Auditory–Visual Stimulus Onset Asynchrony Detection
Bushara, K. O., Grafman, J., & Hallett, M. (2001) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.21-01-00300.2001 · Cited by 361 · see citing works
Cerebellothalamocortical Connectivity Regulates Penetrance in Dystonia
Árgyelán, M., Carbon, M., Niethammer, M., Uluğ, A. M., Voss, H. U., Bressman, S., DHAWAN, V. M., & Eidelberg, D. (2009) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.2300-09.2009 · Cited by 304 · see citing works
Brozzoli, C., Gentile, G., & Ehrsson, H. H. (2012) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.2660-12.2012 · Cited by 293 · see citing works
The Cerebellum Predicts the Timing of Perceptual Events
O’Reilly, J. X., Mesulam, M. M., & Nobre, A. C. (2008) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.2742-07.2008 · Cited by 282 · see citing works
Integration of Visual and Tactile Signals From the Hand in the Human Brain: An fMRI Study
Gentile, G., Petkova, V. I., & Ehrsson, H. H. (2011) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.00840.2010 · Cited by 274 · see citing works
Cognitive and Motor Loops of the Human Cerebro-cerebellar System
Salmi, J., Pallesen, K. J., Neuvonen, T., Brattico, E., Korvenoja, A., Salonen, O. L. M., & Carlson, S. (2009) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21382 · Cited by 272 · see citing works
Dominance of the right hemisphere and role of area 2 in human kinesthesia.
Naito, E., Roland, P. E., Grefkes, C., Choi, H. J., Eickhoff, S., Geyer, S., Zilles, K., & Ehrsson, H. (2005) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.00637.2004 · Cited by 257 · see citing works
The Illusion of Owning a Third Arm
Guterstam, A., Petkova, V. I., & Ehrsson, H. H. (2011) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0017208 · Cited by 250 · see citing works
Where Is Your Arm? Variations in Proprioception Across Space and Tasks
Fuentes, C. T., & Bastian, A. J. (2009) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.00494.2009 · Cited by 247 · see citing works
Holmes, N. P., Snijders, H. J., & Spence, C. J. (2006) · Perception & Psychophysics · doi:10.3758/bf03208768 · Cited by 227 · see citing works
Cerebellar output: motor and cognitive channels
Middleton, F. A., & Strick, P. L. (1998) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(98)01220-0 · Cited by 223 · see citing works
How are visual areas of the brain connected to motor areas for the sensory guidance of movement?
Glickstein, M. (2000) · Trends in Neurosciences · doi:10.1016/s0166-2236(00)01681-7 · Cited by 193 · see citing works
Frontal lobe and posterior parietal contributions to the cortico-cerebellar system
Ramnani, N. (2012) · The Cerebellum · doi:10.1007/s12311-011-0272-3 · Cited by 156 · see citing works
Moving, sensing and learning with cerebellar damage
Bastian, A. J. (2011) · Current Opinion in Neurobiology · doi:10.1016/j.conb.2011.06.007 · Cited by 146 · see citing works
Kammers, M. P. M., Verhagen, L., Dijkerman, H. C., Hogendoorn, H., de Vignemont, F., & Schutter, D. J. L. G. (2008) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21095 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
Gerwig, M., Dimitrova, A., Kolb, F. P., Maschke, M., Brol, B., Kunnel, A., Boring, D., Thilmann, A. F., Forsting, M., Diener, H., et al. (2002) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/awg011 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
Motor and Nonmotor Domains in the Monkey Dentate
Dum, R. P., Li, C., & Strick, P. L. (2002) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2002.tb07575.x · Cited by 132 · see citing works
Zeller, D., Groß, C. C., Bartsch, A., Johansen‐Berg, H., & Claßen, J. (2011) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.5154-10.2011 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Activity in the Posterior Parietal Cortex Mediates Visual Dominance over Kinesthesia
Hagura, N., Takei, T., Hirose, S., Aramaki, Y., Matsumura, M., Sadato, N., & Naito, E. (2007) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0970-07.2007 · Cited by 103 · see citing works
The Cerebellum Optimizes Perceptual Predictions about External Sensory Events
Roth, M. J., Synofzik, M., & Lindner, A. (2013) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.027 · Cited by 102 · see citing works
Hagura, N., Oouchida, Y., Aramaki, Y., Okada, T., Matsumura, M., Sadato, N., & Naito, E. (2008) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/bhn068 · Cited by 92 · see citing works
Moberget, T., Karns, C. M., Deouell, L. Y., Lindgren, M. P., Knight, R. T., & Ivry, R. B. (2008) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.03.016 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Impairment of the rubber hand illusion in focal hand dystonia
Fiorio, M., Weise, D., Önal-Hartmann, C., Zeller, D., Tinazzi, M., & Claßen, J. (2011) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/awr026 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Self-citationLinks between vision and somatosensation
Newport, R., Hindle, J. V., & Jackson, S. R. (2001) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/s0960-9822(01)00266-4 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Cerebellar involvement in motor but not sensory adaptation
Block, H. J., & Bastian, A. J. (2012) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.03.034 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
The rubber hand illusion and its application to clinical neuroscience
Ramakonar, H., Franz, E. A., & Lind, C. R. P. (2011) · Journal of Clinical Neuroscience · doi:10.1016/j.jocn.2011.05.008 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Anatomically plausible illusory posture affects mental rotation of body parts
Ionta, S., Sforza, A. L., Funato, M., & Blanke, O. (2012) · Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3758/s13415-012-0120-z · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Use of sequence information in associative learning in control subjects and cerebellar patients
Timmann, D., Drepper, J., Calabrese, S., rgerhoff, K. B. X. F., Maschke, M., Kolb, F. P., Daum, I., & Diener, H. (2004) · The Cerebellum · doi:10.1080/14734220310024890 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
An unrelayed projection of jaw-muscle spindle afferents to the cerebellum
Donga, R., & Dessem, D. (1993) · Brain Research · doi:10.1016/0006-8993(93)90601-i · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Stimulus-response versus stimulus-stimulus-response learning in cerebellar patients
Richter, S., Matthies, K. C., Ohde, T. C., Dimitrova, A., Gizewski, E. R., Beck, A., Aurich, V., & Timmann, D. (2004) · Experimental Brain Research · doi:10.1007/s00221-004-1920-3 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
1 of the 53 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Maier, M., Ballester, B. R., & Verschure, P. F. M. J. (2019) · Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnsys.2019.00074 · Cited by 528 · see citing works
Current Opinions and Areas of Consensus on the Role of the Cerebellum in Dystonia
Shakkottai, V. G., Batla, A., Bhatia, K. P., Dauer, W. T., Dresel, C., Niethammer, M., Eidelberg, D., Raike, R. S., Smith, Y., Jinnah, H. A., et al. (2016) · The Cerebellum · doi:10.1007/s12311-016-0825-6 · Cited by 239 · see citing works
Welniarz, Q., Worbe, Y., & Gallea, C. (2021) · Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnsys.2021.644059 · Cited by 125 · see citing works
Synthetic consciousness: the distributed adaptive control perspective
Verschure, P. F. M. J. (2016) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2015.0448 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Isayama, R., Vesia, M., Jegatheeswaran, G., Elahi, B., Gunraj, C. A., Cardinali, L., Farnè, A., & Chen, R. E. (2019) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.00345.2018 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Blom, R. M., van Wingen, G. A., van der Wal, S. J., Luigjes, J., van Dijk, M. T., Scholte, H. S., & Denys, D. A. J. P. (2016) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0165789 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
The rubber hand illusion in hypnosis provides new insights into the sense of body ownership
Fiorio, M., Modenese, M., & Cesari, P. (2020) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-020-62745-x · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Self-citationBrain activity associated with the rubber foot illusion
Matsumoto, N., Nakai, R., Ino, T., & Mitani, A. (2020) · Neuroscience Letters · doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2020.134820 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Fornaro, S., Patrikelis, P., & Lucci, G. (2020) · Laterality Asymmetries of Body Brain and Cognition · doi:10.1080/1357650x.2020.1866000 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Haruyama, K., Kasai, K., Makino, R., Hoshi, F., & Nishihara, K. (2019) · Clinical Biomechanics · doi:10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2019.01.013 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Body illusions for mental health: a systematic reviewPreprint
Matamala-Gomez, M., Maselli, A., Malighetti, C., Realdon, O., Mantovani, F., & Riva, G. (2020) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/mk69x · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Predictive processes linking sense of agency and fatigue: a novel allostatic framework
Pizzolla, E., Marotta, A., Longo, M. R., & Fiorio, M. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1792850 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citationSpatial numerical estimates within proprioceptive recalibration
de Castro, T. G., Pinhatti, M. M., de Freitas, C. P. P., & Gomes, W. B. (2017) · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · doi:10.6018/analesps.33.1.229671
Spatial numerical estimation within proprioceptive recalibration
de Castro, T. G., Pinhatti, M. M., de Freitas, C. P. P., & Gomes, W. B. (2016) · Anales de Psicología · doi:10.6018/analesps.32.3.229671
- Authors
- Fiorio, M., Mariotti, C., Panzeri, M., Antonello, E., Classen, J., & Tinazzi, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Verona (IT)
- Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta (IT)
- Leipzig University (DE)
- 1University of Verona
- Venue
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Publisher
- MIT Press - Journals
- Published
- 2014-04-01
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 712-721
- ISSN
- 0898-929X (ISSN-L)
- 1530-8898
- OpenAlex
- W2082258812
- Cited by
- 14
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 3 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 4
- FWCI
- 2.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
- Keywords
- cerebellum, body ownership, rubber hand illusion, proprioception, cerebellar ataxia, proprioceptive drift, inferior parietal lobule, ventral premotor cortex, body image
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Body Image, Cerebellar Ataxia, Cerebellum, Female, Hand, Humans, Illusions, Male, Middle Aged, Proprioception, Psychophysics, Surveys and Questionnaires, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Touch Perception, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
