• Alberto Gallace, Giovanna Soravia, Zaira Cattaneo, G Lorimer Moseley, and Giuseppe Vallar.
• Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
• Plos One. 2014 Jan 1; 9 (3): e88209.

AbstractThe suggestion has recently been made that certain higher-order cortical areas involved in supporting multisensory representations of the body, and of the space around it, might also play a role in controlling thermoregulatory functions. Here we demonstrate that temporary interference with the function of one of these areas, the posterior parietal cortex, by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, results in a decrease in limb temperature. By contrast, interference with the activity of a sensory-specific area (the primary somatosensory cortex) had no effect on temperature. The results of this experiment suggest that associative multisensory brain areas might exert a top-down modulation over basic physiological control. Such a function might be part of a larger neural circuit responsible for maintaining the integrity of the body at both a homeostatic and a psychological level.

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