Lectures and seminars Lecture by Chris Dijkerman: "Interacting components of body perception"

"Interacting components of body perception"

Presenter

Chris Dijkerman, Utrecht University, Helmholtz Institute, the Netherlands

Abstract

An important function of the somatosensory system is to provide information about our body. Different aspects of the body can be perceived, such as the size of body parts (metric body perception), affective aspects like pain and pleasant touch (affective body perception), the experience of owning your body (body ownership) and the perception of the body structure (structural body perception). In our recent review (de Haan & Dijkerman, 2020), we suggested that they are subserved by overlapping neural networks. This would suggest that these components are also functionally linked. In this presentation, I will discuss evidence for the idea of functionally interdependent body perception components from studies in our lab.  I will present studies with neurological and psychiatric patients as well as with healthy participants. These findings provide evidence for how different body perception components interact. This is not only of interest for understanding the functional organization of body perception, but also provides pointers for how to reduce body perception disturbances in various clinical groups.

Somatosensation in the Brain: A Theoretical Re-evaluation and a New Model.
de Haan EHF, Dijkerman HC
Trends Cogn Sci 2020 Jul;24(7):529-541

Host

Henrik Ehrsson, Karolinska Institutet, Department of Neuroscience