title: Body ownership: When feeling and knowing diverge.
abstract: Individuals with the peculiar disturbance of 'overcompleteness' experience an intense desire to amputate one of their healthy limbs, describing a sense of disownership for it (Body Integrity Identity Disorder - BIID). This condition is similar to somatoparaphrenia, the acquired delusion that one's own limb belongs to someone else. In ten individuals with BIID, we measured skin conductance response to noxious stimuli, delivered to the accepted and non-accepted limb, touching the body part or simulating the contact (stimuli approach the body without contacting it), hypothesizing that these individuals have responses like somatoparaphrenic patients, who previously showed reduced pain anticipation, when the threat was directed to the disowned limb. We found reduced anticipatory response to stimuli approaching, but not contacting, the unwanted limb. Conversely, stimuli contacting the non-accepted body-part, induced stronger SCR than those contacting the healthy parts, suggesting that feeling of ownership is critically related to a proper processing of incoming threats.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy; NeuroMi - Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sedda
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Center for Integrative Human Physiology (ZIHP), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brugger
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy; Cognitive Neuropsychology Centre, Niguarda Ca' Granda Hospital, Milano, Italy. Electronic address: g.bottini@unipv.it.
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bottini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000377:Agnosia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D059031:Anticipation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology*; D005121:Extremities / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055698:Touch Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: BIID; Body; Body representation; Consciousness; Ownership; Pain anticipation; Self awareness; Self consciousness; Somatoparaphrenia; Xenomelia