Psychopathology
January 1, 2014
Vittorio Gallese, Francesca Ferri
53 citations
This review examines recent evidence on the neurobiological basis of the bodily self—a minimal sense of self tied to the body and its motor capabilities. The authors show how the body and its potential for movement relate to this minimal self, and argue that this perspective can illuminate self-disturbances and social deficits in schizophrenia. They compare their approach with other views on the neural correlates of self-disturbances in schizophrenia and propose that cognitive neuroscience can now address classic psychopathological topics by linking first-person experiential aspects of psychiatric diseases to their neurobiological foundations.
Schizophrenia research
April 1, 2020
Karl Erik Sandsten, Julie Nordgaard, Troels Wesenberg Kjaer et al.
45 citations
Patients with schizophrenia often report not recognizing themselves in the mirror, a form of self-alienation. Using the Enfacement Illusion, a multisensory paradigm that manipulates self-other facial recognition through visuo-tactile stimulation, this study compared 35 patients with schizophrenia and 35 healthy matched controls. At baseline, patients showed a significant skew toward perceiving another person's face as their own. After both synchronous and asynchronous visuo-tactile stimulation, patients' self-recognition was significantly altered compared to baseline. In contrast, healthy controls only showed altered self-recognition after synchronous stimulation, consistent with prior research. The findings suggest that temporal factors in multisensory integration may contribute to altered self-recognition in schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia research
July 1, 2024
Vittorio Gallese, Martina Ardizzi, Francesca Ferroni
18 citations
Schizophrenia is often explained by neurotransmitter or genetic abnormalities, but an alternative view sees it as a disorder of the self, marked by anomalous self-experience and awareness. This perspective can guide empirical research into the bodily and neurobiological changes underlying the condition. Recent evidence on the bodily self—a minimal sense of self rooted in the body and its motor potentialities—is reviewed. Findings show that anomalies in brain-body functions, particularly multisensory integration and the differential processing of self- versus other-related bodily information, may disrupt self-experience and blur the self-other distinction in schizophrenia. These disruptions likely underlie the self-disorders characteristic of the syndrome.
Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006)
June 1, 2025
Francesca Ferroni, Edoardo Arcuri, Martina Ardizzi et al.
7 citations
Depersonalisation (DP) involves a distressing feeling of being detached from oneself and a flattened sense of time. This study examined how DP experiences affect perception of peripersonal space (the space near the body) and time. Using an audio-tactile task, no difference in peripersonal space perception was found between people with high versus low DP experiences. A mental time travel task revealed that individuals with high DP experiences performed worse overall at locating events in time relative to their present reference point, while those with low DP experiences showed significant variation in performance for past events. The findings link altered self-awareness to disrupted egocentric spatiotemporal perception.
Psychophysiology
February 1, 2025
Maik Mylius, Simon Guendelman, Fivos Iliopoulos et al.
4 citations
Expert meditators show a lower decision threshold rather than higher accuracy in detecting near-threshold tactile stimuli, compared to non-meditators who read regularly. Electroencephalography revealed reduced prestimulus alpha power in meditators, suggesting enhanced alpha modulation. A trial-by-trial analysis found a negative correlation between prestimulus alpha activity and tactile perception. Meditators also reported greater interoceptive sensibility, less emotional suppression, and fewer difficulties describing feelings. These findings suggest that enhanced tactile perception in meditators may stem from reduced sensory filtering in the somatosensory cortex, increasing response rates without improving accuracy.
Eating and weight disorders : EWD
February 1, 2022
Lorenzo Moccia, Eliana Conte, Marianna Ambrosecchia et al.
People with anorexia nervosa-restrictive subtype experience more anomalous self-experiences (ASEs), such as a disturbed sense of self, than healthy controls. These ASEs directly contribute to eating disorder severity, and this relationship is partly explained by an abnormal body image attitude. The findings suggest that a disturbed self-experience may underlie both body image distortions and eating disorder symptoms in this condition, pointing to the need for broader exploration of self-disorder as a transdiagnostic feature.