Human Beings Are Body-Territory

All science begins in a body.

Before there are theories, formulas, religions, technologies, economies, or artificial intelligence, there is a living organism perceiving the world. This organism breathes, feels hunger, experiences fear, seeks belonging, remembers, forgets, imagines, and moves. For this reason, Decolonial Neuroscience begins with a simple yet profound statement:

Human beings are Body-Territory.

Body-Territory means that every person lives the world from within a situated body. This body carries DNA, metabolism, history, culture, language, memory, belonging, social marks, and material conditions of existence. Human beings perceive reality through these internal spaces.

When someone sees a tree, studies organic chemistry, listens to music, or remembers a loved one, these experiences occur as representations within the Body-Territory. Each representation involves imagery, movement, bodily sensation, and qualia—the lived brightness of experience.

The hypothesis proposed here is that human experience unfolds through five dimensions:

• Three spatial dimensions;

• One dimension of movement;

• One dimension of qualia.

Space allows something to possess form and position.

Movement allows transformation.

Qualia provide the felt value of experience.

Knowledge, therefore, is more than correct information.

Knowledge is a living space organized within a Body-Territory.

Consider an adolescent sitting down to study organic chemistry. Their goal is to create internal spaces related to molecules, chemical bonds, carbon chains, and reactions. Their Body-Territory must sustain attention, working memory, mental imagery, and reasoning processes.

Yet while searching for a concept online, they open a social media platform. One video leads to another. One emotional stimulus recruits the next. Two hours later, the body has continued learning—but perhaps not chemistry.

Instead, it may have strengthened spaces associated with:

• rapid context switching;

• immediate rewards;

• social comparison;

• fragmented curiosity;

• emotional stimulation.

The question is no longer:

Did the student study?

A deeper question emerges:

Which spaces grew within the Body-Territory during those two hours?

Here we encounter the contrast between DNA Intelligence and Technological Intelligence.

DNA Intelligence builds the body that feels, regulates, forgets, remembers, directs attention, organizes movement, and transforms perception into existence.

Technological Intelligence—books, maps, algorithms, social media platforms, databases, and AI systems—organizes external representations, symbols, and information structures.

Technology can expand human knowledge.

It can organize scientific articles, simulate molecules, generate hypotheses, translate languages, and accelerate discovery.

Yet it can also compete for attention and occupy internal spaces without necessarily contributing to meaningful understanding.

Artificial Intelligence processes data.

Body-Territory generates experience.

This is where evidence-based science becomes essential.

EEG, fNIRS, HRV, respiration, GSR, EMG, eye-tracking, hyperscanning, and behavioral observation do not directly measure internal representational spaces. Instead, they provide measurable traces of the physiological and behavioral consequences associated with their activation.

A responsible Decolonial Neuroscience does not seek to transform every hypothesis into a universal law.

Instead, it asks:

• Under which boundary conditions does a phenomenon emerge?

• In which bodies?

• In which territories?

• During which tasks?

• Through which technologies?

• Using which measurements?

Every piece of evidence is situated.

Every form of knowledge possesses limits of validity.

Every Body-Territory perceives reality through the spaces it can activate, sustain, expand, transform, or release.

For this reason, the central question guiding this series of blogs is:

Which spaces are we cultivating within our Body-Territories when we say we are learning, working, researching, praying, voting, creating, or simply living?

Scientific References (Post-2021)

Palermo, L. et al. (2023). The Body in Neurosciences: Representation, Perception and Space Processing.

Contribution:
Explores bodily representation, spatial processing, and perception as fundamental components of human cognition.

Parma, C. et al. (2024). An Overview of Bodily Awareness Representation and Interoception.

Contribution:
Reviews contemporary evidence on interoception, body awareness, and the role of bodily signals in conscious experience.

Barrett, L.; Stout, D. (2024). Minds in Movement: Embodied Cognition in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.

Contribution:
Discusses how cognition emerges through body-environment interaction and examines implications for AI and embodied intelligence.

Sandini, G. et al. (2024). Artificial Cognition vs. Artificial Intelligence for Next-Generation Autonomous Systems.

Contribution:
Distinguishes embodied cognition from conventional AI, emphasizing first-person interaction and bodily grounding.

Almarzouki, A. F. et al. (2022). Social Media Usage, Working Memory, and Depression.

Contribution:
Investigates relationships between social media engagement, working memory processes, and psychological outcomes.

Chen, J. et al. (2024). A Cross-Disciplinary Review of the fNIRS-EEG Dual-Modality Imaging.

Contribution:
Reviews combined EEG-fNIRS approaches for investigating neural activity, cortical metabolism, cognition, and behavior.

Foundational Statement of Decolonial Neuroscience

Every science happens within a Body-Territory.

Every piece of evidence emerges under specific boundary conditions.

Every human experience unfolds through space, movement, and qualia.