Body schema is indispensable for sensorimotor control and learning, but it remains unclear whether it is associated with cognitive functions. Data from patients with spatial neglect support this view; yet observations in healthy participants are inconsistent. Here I conducted two sets of experiments examining influences of trunk position: the first probed attention and spatial working memory using a change detection task and a two-back task; the second used different versions of the Posner paradigm to examine whether head-on-trunk position governs disengagement of attention. In none of the experiments did I observe that trunk turns altered performance in the left versus right visual field in an ipsiversive fashion as reported in neglect. Nevertheless, I found that trunk-right position improved performance at eccentric locations of the visual field. The data are inconsistent with previous findings of head-on-trunk effects in normal participants. Further studies are required to clarify these discrepancies.

Body schema is indispensable for sensorimotor control and learning, but it remains unclear whether it is associated with cognitive functions. Data from patients with spatial neglect support this view; yet observations in healthy participants are inconsistent. Here I conducted two sets of experiments examining influences of trunk position: the first probed attention and spatial working memory using a change detection task and a two-back task; the second used different versions of the Posner paradigm to examine whether head-on-trunk position governs disengagement of attention. In none of the experiments did I observe that trunk turns altered performance in the left versus right visual field in an ipsiversive fashion as reported in neglect. Nevertheless, I found that trunk-right position improved performance at eccentric locations of the visual field. The data are inconsistent with previous findings of head-on-trunk effects in normal participants. Further studies are required to clarify these discrepancies.