Recent work brings thermosensation into discussions normally reserved for touch and vision. Laboratory studies and patient observations show that changes in skin temperature can alter feelings of ownership over a limb, affect body image after injury, and modify the sense of presence in virtual environments. Tracing the neural routes from peripheral receptors to cortical areas reveals plausible mechanisms for how thermal input becomes part of a multisensory self-representation.
Understanding thermosensory contributions matters for therapy and design. If warming or cooling can strengthen body ownership, clinicians might use controlled temperature to aid rehabilitation after stroke or to improve prosthetic integration. Designers of virtual and augmented environments could tune thermal cues to create more convincing and inclusive experiences. The article explores these possibilities and raises questions about how subtle, everyday sensations shape who we feel ourselves to be.
Skin temperature and the ability to perceive warm and cold thermal stimuli (i.e., thermoception) are fundamental to human survival, influencing both our evolutionary history and early individual development. Interestingly, recent research has also started to uncover the role of these thermosensory signals in cognition. Such signals may contribute to the construction of our bodily self-awareness, and specifically the sense of body ownership, which is defined as the feeling that the body and its parts belong to us. This review examines how thermosensory signals travel from the skin to the brain and their impact on body ownership in both healthy and clinical populations. Furthermore, we propose mechanisms that may underlie this interaction and highlight potential clinical and societal applications.
