Gut markers of bodily self-consciousness
Alessandro Monti, Giuseppina Porciello, Maria Serena Panasiti, Salvatore M. Aglioti
bioRxiv Preprint Server March 5, 2021 preprint DOI: 10.1101/2021.03.05.434072 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study |
|---|---|
| Citations | 6 |
| Key findings | Specific patterns of stomach and bowel activity covary with facets of bodily self-consciousness, including body agency, location, and disembodiment. |
Abstract
Bodily self-consciousness, the state of mind that allows humans to be aware of their own body, forms the backdrop for almost every human experience, yet its underpinnings remain elusive. Here we combine an ingestible, minimally invasive capsule with surface electrogastrography to probe if gut physiology correlates with bodily self-consciousness during a virtual bodily illusion. We discover that specific patterns of stomach and bowel activity (temperature, pressure, pH, and gastric peak frequency) covary with specific facets of bodily self-consciousness (feelings of body agency, location, and disembodiment). These results uncover the hitherto untapped potential of minimally invasive probes to study the link between mental and gut states, and reveal a deep visceral pathway to the self-conscious perception of ourselves as embodied beings.