That’s (relevant for) me: task-set-dependent brain responses to delayed visual movement feedback

Bodily self-other distinction relies on the detection of (mis)matches between predicted and actual sensory movement consequences, but the brain can also use these mismatches to update its body representation. Here, we manipulated the behavioural relevance of unpredicted (delayed) visual movement feedback during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants matched a target oscillation with either their real, unseen hand (RH task) or with a glove-controlled virtual hand (VH task), under varying visual feedback delays. Delays were task-relevant in the VH task (requiring visuomotor adaptation) but irrelevant in the RH task. VH > RH task execution activated the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and extrastriate visual cortex significantly more strongly. The cerebellum showed stronger overall activity and correlations with delay in the VH > RH task. Thus, the instructed behavioural relevance of delayed visual movement feedback enhanced responses of the PPC (and the cerebellum), likely for visuomotor adaptation. Activity in temporoparietal regions correlated significantly with the amount of delay-equally strongly in both tasks-suggesting a basic mechanism of visuomotor comparison. Delay changes and errors correlated with activity in the anterior insulae, more strongly so in the VH > RH task, suggesting task-set-dependent visual error processing.