J. Limanowski: Body models in the brain: linking adaptive action and self-other distinction

Abstract
To control action and interaction, our brains need to maintain a flexible representation or ‘model’ of the body. There is abundant evidence for such internal models from monkey neurophysiology and human electrophysiological, brain imaging, and neuropsychological studies. One key characteristic of body models is their adaptive nature; i.e., their capacity to learn from sensory prediction errors and, thereby, to adapt to changing circumstances and, potentially, a changing body. On the other hand, body models are thought to underlie our conscious sense of self and the distinction of self-generated from external sensation. I shall review some recent work of my lab, focusing on the detection of unpredicted sensory action consequences, and on the potential influence of ‘top-down’ factors such as attention or an instructed behavioral relevance on the processing and potential integration of such unpredicted sensations into presumed body models. I shall particularly focus on the correlating electrophysiological/hemodynamic brain activity. These findings converge on the idea that cognitive-attentional variables are one of the factors enabling the flexibility of internal body models; e.g., their capacity to either learn from prediction errors or use them for self-other distinction. (I will also briefly discuss the implications of this for cyber-physical interactions.)

Bio
Jakub Limanowski is a Professor of Biological Psychology at the Universität Greifswald, where he studies sensorimotor and multisensory integration in the context of action planning and body representation, using virtual reality based experiments and psychophysiological and brain imaging measurements. Previously, he received his PhD from the Freie Universität Berlin, did a post-doc at University College London, and led a junior research group at TU Dresden’s excellence cluster CeTI.

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