Body scheme gates visual processing

Abstract

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore how guidance of motor acts is influenced by the visually perceived body scheme. We found that when subjects view their hand as their opposite hand, i.e., the right hand is seen as the left hand and vice versa, activation in the visual cortex was lateralized opposite to the seen hand. This demonstrates for the first time that our body scheme to which vision relates our environment is already represented at the level of visual cortex.