The body down under: multisensory coding of self-location
Single Paper Presentation

Olaf Blanke
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

     Abstract ID Number: 131
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: June 22, 2007
     Presentation date: 07/05/2007 5:10 PM in Quad General Lecture Theatre
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Abstract
Although humans have no trouble localizing themselves within their own bodily borders, this sense of self-location or embodiment is a fundamental aspect of bodily self-consciousness and requires specific brain mechanisms. Recent neurological and neuroimaging evidence suggests that multisensory integration of bodily signals in two posterior brain regions in temporo-parietal and occipito-temporal cortex is crucial in coding embodiment.
In this lecture I will review three lines of research investigating brain correlates of embodiment. (1) Pathological states of embodiment (such as out-of-body experiences and autoscopic hallucinations) due to disturbed multisensory integration after focal brain damage to temporo-parietal cortex and extrastriate cortex in neurological patients. (2) Recent findings on activations of the temporo-pariatal cortex and extrastriate cortex in embodiment-related tasks using mental imagery in healthy subjects. (3) Recent experiments on the experimental induction of illusory self-location and disembodiment in healthy subjects using multisensory visuo-tactile conflict and virtual reality.