Splitting of the body image as somesthetic aura symptom in migraine

Splitting of the body image was illustrated as a somesthetic aura symptom in three of the 562 entries to the national Migraine Art competitions, confirming previous descriptions of this rare phenomenon in the migraine literature. In this type of self-experienced paroxysmal body schema disturbance, the own body is perceived as being split, usually in the mid-line, into two halves that may be displaced or separated from each other. Splitting of the body image most frequently applies to the migraine sufferer's head. The said phenomenon, the pathomechanisms of which are obscure, must not be confused with the visual illusion of illusory splitting.