270003 Body and brain: how the brain represents the body, and how the body shapes the mind (S) (WiSe 2018/2019)

Theories of embodied cognition suggest that our thinking is determined by our body, and that understanding cognition requires analyzing the interaction of our body with the world.
But how does the brain represent the body in the first place? Anything the brain can know about the body must arise from sensory input, just like for any other, “non-body” object in the world around us. Yet, some of our senses, such as touch and vestibulation, are unique to bodily experience. How does the brain integrate the different senses to arrive at a coherent representation of the body it commands, and the action possibilities it affords?
We will cover different aspects of psychological and neuroscientific research that has addressed these questions, such as body-related visual, tactile, and proprioceptive illusions; biases in body perception and representation; the importance of spatial processing for body representation; peripersonal space and prioritized processing of near-body events; theories of embodiment and how they radically affect the way we conceptualize cognition.
Many of the findings discussed in the seminar will be from basic research, but they bear relevance not only on our understanding of self, but also of some neurological and psychological disorders.
On our way through some recent literature, we will encounter different neuroscientific methods and will illustrate their potential and limitations as a "side product" of exploring the topics of the seminar.

The seminar will be in held in German.

Requirements for participation, required level

Vorherige Belegung der Module I (Biopsychologie) und X(Kognitive Neurowissenschaften) wird unbedingt empfohlen.

Bibliography

Wird im Seminar bekannt gegeben

External comments page

http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/psychologie/abteilung/arbeitseinheiten/14/Teaching-Lehre.html