The rest is not me… An attempt to explain xenomelia - Neurodevelopmental hypothesis

We demonstrate that xenomelia is a disorder of multifactorial aetiology. In order to explain it, we need to investigate social influence on the development of self-consciousness (and bodily consciousness). We highlight the periods that in our view are critical for the development of one's own body representations. We point to the neuronal representations related to self that undergo major changes during adolescence as we believe they have great impact on shaping bodily consciousness. We also believe that further investigations on neural body maps in infants may tell us more about the possible factors that affect xenomelia.