Body awareness disorders after brain damage

Body awareness is such an integrated part of our cognition that it is usually taken for granted. However, selective modulations of body awareness have been observed following either brain damage resulting from cerebrovascular accidents or experimental manipulations in healthy participants. Altogether, this evidence has raised the question of how deep body ownership is rooted into the human psyche, demonstrating a neural circuitry that subserves its normal functioning. In the article, the main body awareness disturbances are discussed from both a clinical and anatomo-functional perspective. To conclude, a model of body awareness functioning is proposed, based on the described neuropsychological evidence.