Abstract
An unconscious sense of the body in all higher mammals is located in somatosensory and motor cortices, colloquially referred to as the Homunculus (H). The time has arrived to consider how H might engage in the dimensions of selfhood that go beyond embodiment. Surely, the neural network modules that process various dimensions of selfhood must at least access and interact with the H or a stored memory of it. In this review, I suggest that our traditional understanding of H is much too simplistic. This review specifies a set of experimental approaches that should enlarge our understanding of the brain mechanisms of selfhood.
Highlights
The reference to We Three refers to the somatosensory and motor cortices and the unexplored possibility that these neural circuits integrate with other systems in the brain in the instantiation of the unconscious and conscious sense of selfhood
Penfield first described H as a neural map model of body parts acting as a mechanistic system for registering which body parts are stimulated and which muscles are to be activated during movement (Weiss, 1988)
One could say that the self, unconscious or conscious, reads the body maps. What is this self and what contribution does H make to the construction of self-hood? Beyond the embodiment aspect of selfhood, H could be relevant to other dimensions of self-hood, such as body ownership (Low, 2003; Tsakiris, 2010), agency and willed behavior (Klemm, 2015), spatio-temporal location of selfhood (Aspell et al, 2012; Blanke, 2012), mirror neuron processes, introspective realization of ownership of thoughts and emotions, and abstract identity as a being www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/jpbr Journal of Psychology & Behavior Research
Summary
The reference to We Three refers to the somatosensory and motor cortices and the unexplored possibility that these neural circuits integrate with other systems in the brain in the instantiation of the unconscious and conscious sense of selfhood. Even the brain areas mediating many unconscious thoughts and behavior likely interact with body maps. Even though body-part representation is necessary, other brain areas likely interact with H to mediate functions such as ownership, valence, and salience of sensations, and planning of behavioral response.
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