Cortex-Wide Substrates for Body Schema and Action Awareness.

ABSTRACT: The concept of the body schema originated from studies of patients with cortical lesions who were unable to localize their body parts in space or perceive passive movements (Head & Holmes, 1911). Current consensus defines the body schema as the brain's internal representation of the body configuration in space used for both embodied perception and voluntary action (de Vignemont, 2010; Berlucchi & Aglioti, 2010; Vallar et al., 2025). Despite extensive research, how the cortex efficiently encodes the vast repertoire of body postures to support natural behavior remains poorly understood. Here, we reveal the representational format underlying the body schema by combining large-scale electrophysiological recordings with full-body 3D tracking and joint angle computation in freely behaving mice.

SUBMITTER: Severson KS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12485716 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature