Cortical candidates for self-other distinction based on visual and action cues: Where do we stand?

Perceiving myself as distinct from others rests upon distinguishing sensations that were generated by “me” from those that were not. Based on computational frameworks developed in the field of motor control, a common assumption is that the evaluation of predicted vs actual movement feedback by comparators is one of the first steps in establishing self-other distinction. In an attempt to uncover the brain areas implementing such comparisons, neuroimaging studies have predominantly used experimental manipulations of visual movement feedback. From these works, three candidate brain regions have emerged for visuomotor comparisons: the angular gyrus (AG), the extrastriate body area (EBA), and the superior temporal sulcus (STS). However, there is an ongoing debate about which of these regions, if any, implements a comparator in the sensorimotor sense; which kind of signals the visual input is compared against, and how dynamic this comparison is. In this mini review, I revisit the assumptions of classical proposals on visuomotor self-other distinction; discuss potential biases resulting from non-motoric cues in the above studies; highlight how differences in kinematic predictability result from different kinds of visual distortion—and how this could be capitalized on; and discuss the potential promises and pitfalls of recent experimental approaches including passive movement generation.