A Sensorimotor Network for the Bodily Self

作者：Ferri Francesca^*; Frassinetti Francesca; Ardizzi Martina; Costantini Marcello; Gallese Vittorio

来源：Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2012, 24(7): 1584-1595.

DOI：10.1162/jocn_a_00230

Neuroscientists and philosophers, among others, have long questioned the contribution of bodily experience to the constitution of self-consciousness. Contemporary research answers this question by focusing on the notions of sense of agency and/or sense of ownership. Recently, however, it has been proposed that the bodily self might also be rooted in bodily motor experience, that is, in the experience of oneself as instantiating a bodily structure that enables a specific range of actions. In the current fMRI study, we tested this hypothesis by making participants undergo a hand laterality judgment task, which is known to be solved by simulating a motor rotation of one%26apos;s own hand. The stimulus to be judged was either the participant%26apos;s own hand or the hand of a stranger. We used this task to investigate whether mental rotation of pictures depicting one%26apos;s own hands leads to a different activation of the sensorimotor areas as compared with the mental rotation of pictures depicting another%26apos;s hand. We revealed a neural network for the general representation of the bodily self encompassing the SMA and pre-SMA, the anterior insula, and the occipital cortex, bilaterally. Crucially, the representation of one%26apos;s own dominant hand turned out to be primarily confined to the left premotor cortex. Our data seem to support the existence of a sense of bodily self encased within the sensorimotor system. We propose that such a sensorimotor representation of the bodily self might help us to differentiate our own body from that of others.

• 出版日期2012-7