Abstract
The integration of interoception and visual body imagery, based on exteroception, is important in body imagery transformation. Brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging during a task in which participants were asked to judge whether a raised arm in frontal or rear view body line drawings was the right or left hand. The reaction time for judgment was longer for the frontal view than for the rear view when the drawing was rotated at 0°, 90°, and 270° relative to the upright posture. Corresponding to the increase in reaction time, we observed increased activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate gyrus (dACC). Furthermore, the difference between the dACC activity for the frontal view and that for the rear view correlated positively with participants’ interoceptive sensitivity derived by the heartbeat detection task. These results suggest that dACC plays an important role in intero-exteroceptive integration for body image transformation.
