RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 That's Near My Hand! Parietal and Premotor Coding of Hand-Centered Space Contributes to Localization and Self-Attribution of the Hand
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 14573
OP 14582
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2660-12.2012
VO 32
IS 42
A1 Claudio Brozzoli
A1 Giovanni Gentile
A1 H. Henrik Ehrsson
YR 2012
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/42/14573.abstract
AB The ability to identify and localize our own limbs is crucial for survival. Indeed, the majority of our interactions with objects occur within the space surrounding the hands. In non-human primates, neurons in the posterior parietal and premotor cortices dynamically represent the space near the upper limbs in hand-centered coordinates. Neuronal populations selective for the space near the hand also exist in humans. It is unclear whether these remap the peri-hand representation as the arm is moved in space. Furthermore, no combined neuronal and behavioral data are available about the possible involvement of peri-hand neurons in the perception of the upper limbs in any species. We used fMRI adaptation to demonstrate dynamic hand-centered encoding of space by reporting response suppression in human premotor and posterior parietal cortices to repeated presentations of an object near the hand for different arm postures. Furthermore, we show that such spatial representation is related to changes in body perception, being remapped onto a prosthetic hand if perceived as one's own during an illusion. Interestingly, our results further suggest that peri-hand space remapping in the premotor cortex is most tightly linked to the subjective feeling of ownership of the seen limb, whereas remapping in the posterior parietal cortex closely reflects changes in the position sense of the arm. These findings identify the neural bases for dynamic hand-centered encoding of peripersonal space in humans and provide hitherto missing evidence for the link between the peri-hand representation of space and the perceived self-attribution and position of the upper limb.