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Cortical responses to self and others

Profile image of Lars MuckliLars Muckli

2009, Human Brain Mapping

https://doi.org/10.1002/HBM.20558
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Abstract

The extrastriate body area (EBA) is one among the multiple, functionally specialized regions of the human visual cortex exhibiting modulation by body-related stimuli. Here we investigate whether activation patterns differ for the perception of one's own body and the bodies of others. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify body-related brain areas and to see how these areas differentiate between images of one's own body and those of others in the absence of facial or motion cues. Whole brain explorative group-level analysis identified body-related blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal enhancement in five regions of the right and in one region of the left hemisphere (right: in the extrastriate visual and parietal cortex and in the precentral gyrus, left: in the extrastriate visual cortex). General linear model group-level random effects analysis of the self–other contrast revealed self-related responses in the extrastriate and parietal regions in the right hemisphere but also in the right middle frontal gyrus. These results suggest the existence of a cortical network for the extraction of body-related information and another cortical network for the extraction of self-related body information. The two networks partially overlap in the right superior and inferior parietal cortices, but are clearly segregated in the extrastriate visual cortex and in the middle frontal gyrus. In addition, we report that the classical EBA is only involved in the analysis of body-related information but not in the assignment of body identity. The latter appears to be accomplished by a network in right hemisphere comprising the fusiform body area, regions of the superior parietal lobe, the inferior parietal cortex, and the middle frontal gyrus. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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    Giuseppe Vallar

    Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2012

    ■ Multisensory interactions can produce analgesic effects. In particular, viewing oneʼs own body reduces pain levels, perhaps because of changes in connectivity between visual areas specialized for body representation, and sensory areas underlying pain perception. We tested the causal role of the extrastriate visual cortex in triggering visually induced analgesia by modulating the excitability of this region with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Anodal, cathodal, or sham tDCS (2 mA, 10 min) was administered to 24 healthy participants over the right occipital or over the centro-parietal areas thought to be involved in the sensory processing of pain. Participants were required to rate the intensity of painful electrical stimuli while viewing either their left hand or an object occluding the left hand, both before and immediately after tDCS. We found that the analgesic effect of viewing the body was enhanced selectively by anodal stimulation of the occipital cortex. The effect was specific for the polarity and the site of stimulation. The present results indicate that visually induced analgesia may depend on neural signals from the extrastriate visual cortex. ■

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    A Sensorimotor Network for the Bodily Self
    Francesca Frassinetti, Martina Ardizzi, Vittorio Gallese

    Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2012

    ■ 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 oneʼs own hand. The stimulus to be judged was either the partici-pantʼs own hand or the hand of a stranger. We used this task to investigate whether mental rotation of pictures depicting oneʼs own hands leads to a different activation of the sensorimotor areas as compared with the mental rotation of pictures depicting anotherʼs 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 oneʼs 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. ■

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    Judging roughness by sight-A 7-tesla fMRI study on responsivity of the primary somatosensory cortex during observed touch of self and others
    Esther Kuehn

    Human Brain Mapping, 2013

    Observing another person being touched activates our own somatosensory system. Whether the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) is also activated during the observation of passive touch, and which subregions of S1 are responsible for self-and other-related observed touch is currently unclear. In our study, we first aimed to clarify whether observing passive touch without any action component can robustly increase activity in S1. Secondly, we investigated whether S1 activity only increases when touch of others is observed, or also when touch of one's own body is observed. We were particularly interested in which subregions of S1 are responsible for either process. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging at 7 Tesla to measure S1 activity changes when participants observed videos of their own or another's hand in either egocentric or allocentric perspective being touched by different pieces of sandpaper. Participants were required to judge the roughness of the different sandpaper surfaces. Our results clearly show that S1 activity does increase in response to observing passive touch, and that activity changes are localized in posterior but not in anterior parts of S1. Importantly, activity increases in S1 were particularly related to observing another person being touched. Self-related observed touch, in contrast, caused no significant activity changes within S1. We therefore assume that posterior but not anterior S1 is part of a system for sharing tactile experiences with others. Hum Brain Mapp 00:000-000, 2012. V C 2012 WileyPeriodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary. com).

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