The ability to identify our own body is considered a pivotal marker of self-awareness. Previous research demonstrated that subjects are more efficient in the recognition of images representing self rather than others' body effectors (self-advantage). Here, we verified whether, at an electrophysiological level, bodily-self recognition modulates change detection responses. In a first EEG experiment (discovery sample), event-related potentials (ERPs) were elicited by a pair of sequentially presented visual stimuli (vS1; vS2), representing either the self-hand or other people's hands. In a second EEG experiment (replicating sample), together with the previously described visual stimuli, also a familiar hand was presented. Participants were asked to decide whether vS2 was identical or different from vS1. Accuracy and response times were collected. In both experiments, results confirmed the presence of the self-advantage: participants responded faster and more accurately when the self-hand was presented. ERP results paralleled behavioral findings. Anytime the self-hand was presented, we observed significant change detection responses, with a larger N270 component for vS2 different rather than identical to vS1. Conversely, when the self-hand was not included, and even in response to the familiar hand in Experiment 2, we did not find any significant modulation of the change detection responses. Overall our findings, showing behavioral self-advantage and the selective modulation of N270 for the self-hand, support the existence of a specific mechanism devoted to bodily-self recognition, likely relying on the multimodal (visual and sensorimotor) dimension of the bodily-self representation. We propose that such a multimodal self-representation may activate the salience network, boosting change detection effects specifically for the self-hand.

识别自己身体的能力被认为是自我意识的关键标志。先前的研究表明，与其他人的身体效应器相比，受试者在识别代表自己的图像方面更有效（自我优势）。在这里，我们验证了在电生理水平上，身体自我识别是否能调节变化检测响应。在第一个EEG实验（发现样本）中，事件相关电位（ERP）由一对顺序呈现的视觉刺激（vS1; vS2）引起，代表自己的手或其他人的手。在第二个EEG实验（复制样本）中，与前面描述的视觉刺激一起，还出现了一只熟悉的手。要求参与者确定vS2与vS1相同还是不同。收集准确性和响应时间。在两个实验中，结果均证实了自身优势：参与者展示自己的手时，反应更快，更准确。ERP结果与行为调查结果相似。无论何时出现自我举动，我们都会观察到明显的变化检测响应，其中vS2的较大N270分量不同于vS1，而不是相同。相反，当不包括手的时候，即使响应实验2中熟悉的手，我们也没有发现变化检测响应的任何显着调制。总体而言，我们的研究结果显示出行为上的优势以及对N270的选择性调节，这表明存在专门致力于身体自我识别的特定机制，这可能依赖于身体多模态（视觉和感觉运动）维度。自我代表。