Toward dimensional body consciousness impairments in post-traumatic stress disorder and its dissociative subtype: A predictive processing approach.
Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews March 1, 2026 Andrew Laurin, Hugo Bottemanne, Samuel Bulteau et al. 2 citations
A review proposes that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involves disrupted body awareness, specifically the sense of body ownership and sense of agency, which current models overlook. Using predictive processing theory, it distinguishes two PTSD subtypes. In non-dissociative PTSD, hyperprecise trauma-related prior beliefs and heightened interoceptive signals (due to amygdala and anterior insula hyperactivity) produce rigid self-representations, with cognitive processing ranked as prior, interoception, then exteroception. In the dissociative subtype, emotional over-inhibition and anterior insula hypoactivity weaken priors and interoception, while exteroception dominates (exteroception, interoception, prior). Sense of agency impairments are specific to the dissociative subtype, linked to angular gyrus hyperactivity and glutamate hypofunction. The framework suggests a dimensional model of body consciousness disruption across the PTSD spectrum and discusses therapeutic implications for top-down and bottom-up interventions.