Coupling Inner and Outer Body for Self-Consciousness.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences May 1, 2019 Hyeong-Dong Park, O. Blanke
Recent research on self-consciousness has separately examined bodily signals from outside the body (exteroception) and from internal organs (interoception), with little integration between these approaches. This review synthesizes evidence on interoceptive bodily processing and its combination with exteroceptive signals for self-consciousness. The authors propose an integrated neural system that reconciles these two perspectives and explains fundamental aspects of self-consciousness, including self-identification, self-location, and the experienced global unity and temporal continuity of the self.