Coupling Inner and Outer Body for Self-Consciousness

Abstract

Although recent studies on self-consciousness emphasized the importance of bodily processing and multisensory integration, such research has focused solely on bodily signals originating from the outside of the body (i.e., exteroceptive bodily signals) or internal bodily signals from visceral organs (i.e., interoceptive bodily signals) and how each system contributes to self-consciousness, without much interaction between the two approaches. Reviewing the latest evidence on interoceptive bodily processing and the combination of exteroceptive and interoceptive bodily signals for self-consciousness, we propose an integrated neural system reconciling these two largely separated views and delineate how it accounts for fundamental aspects of self-consciousness such as self-identification and self-location, as well as its experienced global unity and temporal continuity.

Keywords: exteroceptive processing; heartbeat-evoked potential; interoceptive signals; multisensory; torso-centered perception.