Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Off-Line and On-Line Body Representations

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover The Feeling of Embodiment

  • 491 Accesses

Abstract

Carruthers introduces some of the tools needed for the explanation of the feeling of embodiment. From the experiences and abilities of patients suffering anosognosia for hemiplegia we find at least two separate ways of representing the body, called on-line and off-line body representations. Sufferers of anosognosia are generally unaware of paralysis or severe weakness caused by a stroke or other brain damage. However, these patients can be made temporarily aware of their paralysis or weakness and there is evidence that the new state of their body is usually represented unconsciously. This is explained by the difference between on-line and off-line body representations and how they are accessed. Having drawn this distinction, it seems that off-line representations play an important role in the sense of embodiment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adair, J. C., Na, D. L., Schwartz, R. L., Fennell, E. M., Gilmore, R. L., & Heilman, K. M. (1995). Anosognosia for hemiplegia: Test of the personal neglect hypothesis. Neurology, 45(12), 2195–2199.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Adair, J. C., Schwartz, R. L., Na, D. L., Fennell, E., Gilmore, R. L., & Heilman, K. M. (1997). Anosognosia: Examining the disconnection hypothesis. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 63(6), 798–800.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baier, B., & Karnath, H. O. (2008). Tight link between our sense of limb ownership and self-awareness of actions. Stroke, 39, 486–488.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berti, A., Bottini, G., Gandola, M., Pia, L., Smania, N., Stracciari, A., … Paulesu, E. (2005). Shared cortical anatomy for motor awareness and motor control. Science, 309(5733), 488–491. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1110625.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Berti, A., Ladavas, E., Stracciari, A., Giannarelli, C., & Ossola, A. (1998). Anosognosia for motor impairment and dissociations with patients’ evaluation of the disorder: Theoretical considerations. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 3(1), 21–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Besharati, S., Kopelman, M., Avesani, R., Moro, V., & Fotopoulou, A. K. (2015). Another perspective on anosognosia: Self-observation in video replay improves motor awareness. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 25(3), 319–352. https://doi.org/10.1080/09602011.2014.923319.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bisiach, E., Vallar, G., Perani, D., Papagno, C., & Berti, A. (1986). Unawareness of disease following lesions of the right hemisphere: Anosognosia for hemiplegia and anosognosia for hemianopia. Neuropsychologia, 24(4), 471–482.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brock, S., & Merwarth, H. R. (1957). The illusory awareness of body parts in cerebral disease. AMA Archives of Neurology & Psychiatry, 77(4), 366–375.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burgess, P. W., & Shallice, T. (1996). Response suppression, initiation and strategy use following frontal lobe lesions. Neuropsychologia, 34(4), 263–272.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carruthers, G. (2008). Types of body representation and the sense of embodiment. Consciousness and Cognition, 17(4), 1302–1316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chatterjee, A., & Mennemeier, M. (1996). Anosognosia for hemiplegia: Patient retrospections. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 1(3), 221–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/135468096396523.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cocchini, G., Beschin, N., & Della Sala, S. (2002). Chronic anosognosia: A case report and theoretical account. Neuropsychologia, 40(12), 2030–2038.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cocchini, G., Beschin, N., Fotopoulou, A., & Della Sala, S. (2010). Explicit and implicit anosognosia or upper limb motor impairment. Neuropsychologia, 48(5), 1489–1494.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Critchley, M. (1955). Personification of paralysed limbs in hemiplegics. British Medical Journal, 2(4934), 284.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cutting, J. (1978). Study of anosognosia. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 41(6), 548–555.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason and the human brain. New York: Quill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg, T. E., Roane, D. M., & Ali, J. (2000). Illusory limb movements in anosognosia for hemiplegia. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 68, 511–513.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg, T. E., Roane, D. M., Kwan, P. C., Schindler, R. J., & Haber, L. D. (1994). Anosognosia and visuoverbal confabulation. Archives of Neurology, 51(5), 468–473. https://doi.org/10.1001/archneur.1994.00540170044015.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fotopoulou, A., Pernigo, S., Maeda, R., Rudd, A., & Kopelman, M. A. (2010). Implicit awareness in anosognosia for hemiplegia: Unconscious interference without conscious re-representation. Brain, 133(12), 3564–3577. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awq233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fotopoulou, A., Rudd, A., Holmes, P., & Kopelman, M. (2009). Self-observation reinstates motor awareness in anosognosia for hemiplegia. Neuropsychologia, 47(5), 1256–1260.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garbarini, F., Rabuffetti, M., Piedimonte, A., Pia, L., Ferrarin, M., Frassinetti, F., … Berti, A. (2012). ‘Moving’ a paralysed hand: Bimanual coupling effect in patients with anosognosia for hemiplegia. Brain, 135(5), 1486–1497.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilmore, R. L., Heilman, K. M., Schmidt, R. P., Fennell, E. M., & Quisling, R. (1992). Anosognosia during Wada testing. Neurology, 42(4), 925.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gold, M., Adair, J. C., Jacobs, D. H., & Heilman, K. M. (1994). Anosognosia for hemiplegia: An electrophysiologic investigation of the feed-forward hypothesis. Neurology, 44(10), 1804.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heilman, K. M., Barrett, A. M., & Adair, J. C. (1998). Possible mechanisms of anosognosia: A defect in self-awareness. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 353, 1903–1909.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Invernizzi, P., Gandola, M., Romano, D., Zapparoli, L., Bottini, G., & Paulesu, E. (2013). What is mine? Behavioral and anatomical dissociations between somatoparaphrenia and anosognosia for hemiplegia. Behavioural Neurology, 26(1–2), 139–150.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Karnath, H.-O., Baier, B., & Nagele, T. (2005). Awareness of the functioning of one’s own limbs mediated by the insular cortex? The Journal of Neuroscience, 25(31), 7134–7138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langdon, R., & Bayne, T. (2010). Delusion and confabulation: Mistakes of perceiving, remembering and believing. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 15(1–3), 319–345.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marcel, A. J. (1993). Slippage in the unity of consciousness. In G. R. Bock & J. Marsh (Eds.), Symposium on experimental and theoretical studies of consciousness. London: CIBA Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcel, A. J., Tegner, R., & Nimmo-Smith, I. (2004). Anosognosia for plegia: Specificity, extension, partiality and disunity of bodily unawareness. Cortex, 40, 19–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nardone, I. B., Ward, R., Fotopoulou, A., & Turnbull, O. H. (2008). Attention and emotion in anosognosia: Evidence of implicit awareness and repression? Neurocase, 13(5–6), 438–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orfei, M. D., Robinson, R. G., Prigatano, G. P., Starkstein, S., Rüsch, N., Bria, P., … Spalletta, G. (2007). Anosognosia for hemiplegia after stroke is a multifaceted phenomenon: A systematic review of the literature. Brain, 130(12), 3075–3090.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Preston, C., Jenkinson, P. M., & Newport, R. (2010). Anosognosia for hemiplegia as a global deficit in motor awareness: Evidence from the non-paralysed limb. Neuropsychologia, 48(12), 3443–3450.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prigatano, G. P., Matthes, J., Hill, S. W., Wolf, T. R., & Heiserman, J. E. (2011). Anosognosia for hemiplegia with preserved awareness of complete cortical blindness following intracranial hemorrhage. Cortex, 47(10), 1219–1227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramachandran, V. (1995). Anosognosia in parietal lobe syndrome. Consciousness and Cognition, 4, 22–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Starkstein, S. E., Berthier, M. L., Fedoroff, P., Price, T. R., & Robinson, R. G. (1990). Anosognosia and major depression in 2 patients with cerebrovascular lesions. Neurology, 40(9), 1380.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, P., Giraud, K., Alchaar, H., & Chatel, M. (1998). Ictal asomatognosia with hemiparesis. Neurology, 51(1), 280–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsakiris, M., & Fotopoulou, A. (2008). Is my body the sum of online and offline body-representations? Consciousness and Cognition, 17(4), 1317–1320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vallar, G., & Ronchi, R. (2006). Anosognosia for motor and sensory deficits after unilateral brain damage: A review. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 24(4), 247–260.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vallar, G., & Ronchi, R. (2009). Somatoparaphrenia: A body delusion: A review of the neuropsychological literature. Experimental Brain Research, 192(3), 533–551.

    Google Scholar 

  • Venneri, A., & Shanks, M. F. (2004). Belief and awareness: Reflections on a case of persistent anosognosia. Neuropsychologia, 42(2), 230–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vocat, R., Staub, F., Stroppini, T., & Vuilleumier, P. (2010). Anosognosia for hemiplegia: A clinical-anatomical prospective study. Brain, 133(12), 3578–3597.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Welman, A. J. (1969). Right-sided unilateral visual spatial agnosia, asomatognosia and anosognosia with left hemisphere lesions. Brain, 92(3), 571–580.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Charles Sturt University, Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia

    Glenn Carruthers

Authors
  1. Glenn Carruthers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Glenn Carruthers .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Carruthers, G. (2019). Off-Line and On-Line Body Representations. In: The Feeling of Embodiment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14167-7_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation