My Body or Yours? The Effect of Visual Perspective on Cortical Body Representations

A human body part, such as a foot, may be observed from an egocentric perspective (consistent with looking at one's own body, e.g. top of the foot, toes pointing up) or from an allocentric perspective (only consistent with looking at someone else, e.g. top of the foot, toes pointing downwards). We found that the right extrastriate body area (EBA) response to images of body parts was enhanced for body parts presented from an allocentric perspective. Other areas of extrastriate cortex which responded robustly to images of bodies, including the right lateral occipital complex, right MT and left EBA, nevertheless did not distinguish between the two perspectives. A region of primary somatosensory cortex showed the reverse selectivity: the blood oxygen level-dependent response to body parts presented from an allocentric perspective was suppressed. These results help to illuminate the integration of visual and tactile information by which the brain identifies seen body parts as belonging to the self or to another person.