Secondary somatosensory cortex of primates: beyond body maps, toward conscious self-in-the-world maps

Recent human imaging studies have revealed the involvement of the secondary somatosensory cortex (SII) in processes that require high-level information integration, such as self-consciousness, social relations, whole body representation, and metaphorical extrapolations. These functions are far beyond its known role in the formation of body maps (even in their most complex forms), requiring the integration of different information modalities in addition to somatosensory information. However, no evidence of such complex processing seems to have been detected at the neuronal level in animal experiments, which would constitute a major discrepancy between human and non-human animals. This article scrutinizes this gap, introducing experimental evidence of human and non-human primates’ SII functions set in context with their evolutionary significance and mechanisms, functionally situating the human SII as a primate brain. Based on the presented data, a new concept of a somatocentric holistic self is proposed, represented as a more comprehensive body-in-the-world map in the primate SII, taking into account evolutionary aspects that characterize the human SII and its implication in the emergence of self-consciousness. Finally, the idea of projection is introduced from the viewpoint of cognitive science, providing a logical explanation to bridge this gap between observed behavior and neurophysiological data.