title: Illusory own body perceptions: case reports and relevance for bodily self-consciousness.
abstract: Neurological disorders of body representation have for a long time suggested the importance of multisensory processing of bodily signals for self-consciousness. One such group of disorders--illusory own body perceptions affecting the entire body--has been proposed to be especially relevant in this respect, based on neurological data as well as philosophical considerations. This has recently been tested experimentally in healthy subjects showing that integration of multisensory bodily signals from the entire body with respect to the three aspects: self-location, first-person perspective, and self-identification [corrected], is crucial for bodily self-consciousness. Here we present clinical and neuroanatomical data of two neurological patients with paroxysmal disorders of full body representation in whom only one of these aspects, self-identification, was abnormal. We distinguish such disorders of global body representation from related but distinct disorders and discuss their relevance for the neurobiology of bodily self-consciousness.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Lukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Heydrich
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dieguez
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Grunwald
authors.forename: Margitta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Seeck
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Blanke
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D001828:Body Image; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003702:Delusions / Q000503:physiopathology; D003861:Depersonalization / Q000503:physiopathology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004828:Epilepsies, Partial / Q000503:physiopathology*; D017029:Epilepsy, Complex Partial / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions / Q000502:physiology*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D033182:Intention; D002538:Intracranial Arteriovenous Malformations / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D007699:Kinesthesis / Q000502:physiology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D012649:Self Concept; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted