Abstract
Body integrity identity disorder (BIID), or xenomelia, is a failure to integrate a fully functional limb into a coherent body schema. It manifests as the desire for amputation of the particular limb below an individually stable ‘demarcation line.’ Here we show, in five individuals with xenomelia, defective temporal order judgments to two tactile stimuli, one proximal, the other distal of the demarcation line. Spatio-temporal integration, known to be mediated by the parietal lobes, was biased towards the undesired body part, apparently capturing the individual's attention in a pathologically exaggerated way. This finding supports the view of xenomelia as a parietal lobe syndrome.
Aoyama, A