scholarly journals Size-manipulation of the body-schema using the rubber hand illusion

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 862-862
Author(s):  
E. A. G. Cooke ◽  
J. K. O'Regan
Keyword(s):  
Body Schema ◽  
The Body ◽  
Rubber Hand Illusion ◽  
Rubber Hand

The rubber hand illusion and the tactile Simon effect

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 187
Author(s):  
Michael Iannacone ◽  
Jared Medina
Keyword(s):  
Simon Effect ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
The Body ◽  
Rubber Hand Illusion ◽  
Hand Position ◽  
Rubber Hand ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Experimental Block ◽  
Four Blocks

We examined the effects of the rubber hand illusion on representing tactile stimuli using the Simon effect. In a tactile Simon effect task, participants are instructed to make intensity judgments (using foot pedal responses) to tactile stimuli presented to the hands. Participants are faster when the tactile stimulus and response foot are on the same versus opposite side of the body, regardless of whether the limbs are crossed or uncrossed. Furthermore, participants are faster overall when the hands are crossed versus uncrossed. In this study, participants engaged in a tactile Simon effect experiment with rubber hands positioned directly above the participants’ hidden hands, and with real and rubber hands stroked before each experimental block. Each participant was tested in four blocks, manipulating real and rubber hand position (crossed or uncrossed). First, we found that participants responded faster with real or rubber hands crossed, demonstrating that crossing the hands (real or rubber) can hasten tactile intensity judgments. Furthermore, on trials when the rubber hands were crossed, high ownership ratings for the rubber hand were significantly correlated with faster reaction times. Finally, we found a significantly more robust Simon effect when the rubber hands (but not real hands) were crossed. We discuss these findings with reference to how integration of rubber hands into the body schema influences how we represent the location of tactile stimuli.

The Rubber Hand Illusion in Healthy Younger and Older Adults

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 537-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Campos ◽  
Graziella El-Khechen Richandi ◽  
Babak Taati ◽  
Behrang Keshavarz
Keyword(s):  
Skin Temperature ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Objective Measure ◽  
The Body ◽  
Rubber Hand Illusion ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Rubber Hand ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Body Change

Percepts about our body’s position in space and about body ownership are informed by multisensory feedback from visual, proprioceptive, and tactile inputs. The Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI) is a multisensory illusion that is induced when an observer sees a rubber hand being stroked while they feel their own, spatially displaced, and obstructed hand being stroked. When temporally synchronous, the visual–tactile interactions can create the illusion that the rubber hand belongs to the observer and that the observer’s real hand is shifted in position towards the rubber hand. Importantly, little is understood about whether these multisensory perceptions of the body change with older age. Thus, in this study we implemented a classic RHI protocol (synchronous versus asynchronous stroking) with healthy younger (18–35) and older (65+) adults and measured the magnitude of proprioceptive drift and the subjective experience of body ownership. As an adjunctive objective measure, skin temperature was recorded to evaluate whether decreases in skin temperature were associated with illusory percepts, as has been shown previously. The RHI was observed for both age groups with respect to increased drift and higher ratings of ownership following synchronous compared to asynchronous stroking. Importantly, no effects of age and no interactions between age and condition were observed for either of these outcome measures. No effects were observed for skin temperature. Overall, these results contribute to an emerging field of research investigating the conditions under which age-related differences in multisensory integration are observed by providing insights into the role of visual, proprioceptive, and tactile inputs on bodily percepts.

scholarly journals Rubber Hand Illusion does not arise from comparisons with internal body models: a new multisensory integration account of the sense of ownership

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Litwin
Keyword(s):  
Multisensory Integration ◽  
Human Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
Rubber Hand Illusion ◽  
Multisensory Perception ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Rubber Hand ◽  
Sense Of Ownership ◽  
Body Model ◽  
Internal Body

Human body sense is surprisingly flexible – precisely administered multisensory stimulation may result in the illusion that an external object is part of one’s body. There seems to be a general consensus that there are certain top-down constraints on which objects may be incorporated: in particular, to-be-embodied objects should be structurally similar to a visual representation stored in an internal body model for a shift in one’s body image to occur. However, empirical evidence contradicts the body model hypothesis: the sense of ownership may be spread over objects strikingly distinct in morphology and structure (e.g., robotic arms or empty space) and direct empirical support for the theory is currently lacking. As an alternative, based on the example of the rubber hand illusion (RHI), I propose a multisensory integration account of how the sense of ownership is induced. In this account, the perception of one’s own body is a regular type of multisensory perception and multisensory integration processes are not only necessary but also sufficient for embodiment. In this paper, I propose how RHI can be modeled with the use of Maximum Likelihood Estimation and natural correlation rules. I also discuss how Bayesian Coupling Priors and idiosyncrasies in sensory processing render prior distributions interindividually variable, accounting for large interindividual differences in susceptibility to RHI. Taken together, the proposed model accounts for exceptional malleability of human body perception, fortifies existing bottom-up multisensory integration theories with top-down models of relatedness of sensory cues, and generates testable and disambiguating predictions.

scholarly journals Rewired Animals and Sensory Substitution: The Cause Is Not Cortical Plasticity

2018 ◽  
pp. 167-173
Author(s):  
J. Kevin O’regan
Keyword(s):  
Tool Use ◽  
Quality Of Experience ◽  
Cortical Plasticity ◽  
The Body ◽  
Sensory Substitution ◽  
Rubber Hand Illusion ◽  
Rubber Hand ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Modes Of Interaction

Cortical plasticity is often invoked to explain changes in the quality or location of experience observed in rewired animals, in sensory substitution, in extension of the body through tool use, and in the rubber hand illusion. However this appeal to cortical plasticity may be misleading, because it suggests that the cortical areas that are plastic are themselves the loci of generation of experience. This would be an error, I claim, since cortical areas do not generate experience. Cortical areas participate in enabling the interaction of an agent with its environment, and the quality of this interaction constitutes the quality of experience. Thus it is not plasticity in itself, but the change in modes of interaction which plasticity allows, which gives rise to the change of experience observed in these studies.

scholarly journals A common perceptual inference for cross-modally induced illusions of body schema

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zane Z. Zheng ◽  
Kevin G. Munhall ◽  
Ingrid S. Johnsrude
Keyword(s):  
Tactile Stimulation ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Rubber Hand Illusion ◽  
Similar Degree ◽  
Rubber Hand ◽  
Perceptual Inference ◽  
Vocal Production ◽  
Multimodal Representation

AbstractBody-schema, or the multimodal representation of one’s own body attributes, has been demonstrated previously to be malleable. In the rubber-hand illusion (Botvinick & Cohen, 1998), synchronous visual and tactile stimulation cause a fake hand to be perceived as one’s own. Similarly, if a stranger’s voice is heard synchronously with one’s own vocal production, that voice comes to be attributed to oneself (Zheng et al., 2011). Multimodal illusions like these involve distorting body schema based on correlated input, yet the degree to which different instances of distortion are perceived within the same individuals has never been examined. Here we show that participants embraced the ownership of a fake hand and a stranger’s voice to a similar degree, controlling both for individual suggestibility and for general susceptibility to illusion of body schema. Our findings suggest that the perceptual inference that leads to the distortion of body schema is a stable trait.

scholarly journals What do participants expect to experience in the rubber hand illusion?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arran T Reader
Keyword(s):  
Subjective Experience ◽  
The Body ◽  
Rubber Hand Illusion ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Rubber Hand ◽  
Demand Characteristics ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Synchronous Condition ◽  
Subjective Reports

The sense of body ownership (the feeling that the body belongs to the self) is commonly believed to arise through multisensory integration. This is famously shown in the rubber hand illusion (RHI), where touches applied synchronously to a false hand and to the participant’s real hand (which is hidden from view) can induce a sensation of ownership over the fake one. Asynchronous touches weaken the illusion, and are typically used as a control condition. Subjective experience during the illusion is measured using a questionnaire, with some statements designed to capture illusory sensation and others designed as controls. However, recent work by Lush (2020, Collabra: Psychology) claimed that participants may have different levels of expectation for questionnaire items in the synchronous condition compared to the asynchronous condition, and for the illusion-related items compared to the control items. This may mean that the classic RHI questionnaire is poorly controlled for demand characteristics. As such, Lush (2020) suggested that subjective reports in the RHI may reflect compliance or even the generation of experience to meet expectations (‘phenomenological control’), rather than multisensory processes underlying the sense of body ownership. In the current work a conceptual replication of Lush (2020) was performed with an improved experimental design. Participants were presented with a video of the RHI procedure and reported the sensations they would expect to experience, both in open questions and by rating questionnaire items. In keeping with Lush (2020), participants had greater expectations for illusion statements in the synchronous condition compared to the asynchronous condition, and for illusion statements compared to control statements. However, there was also evidence that some expectations may be driven by exposure to the questionnaire items rather than exposure to the illusion procedure. The role of pre-illusion expectations and expectations driven by questionnaire exposure in the RHI require further examination.

scholarly journals Equivalence of the Classical Rubber Hand Illusion and the Virtual Hand Illusion

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 31-45
Author(s):  
V.P. Vorobeva ◽  
O.S. Perepelkina ◽  
G.A. Arina
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Rubber Hand Illusion ◽  
Experimental Comparison ◽  
Rubber Hand ◽  
Ordinary Life ◽  
Virtual Hand ◽  
Complex Processes ◽  
Model Complex ◽  
Virtual Setting ◽  
Proprioceptive Drift

Computer technologies implementation into the body illusions research is increasing because they allow to controllably model complex processes that cannot be realised in ordinary life. It was previously demonstrated that the rubber hand illusion may be reconstructed in the virtual setting and cause similar changes in the somatoperception when the virtual hand begins to feel like your own. This result suggests that the phenomenological experience obtained in the classical illusion and in its virtual reality version has much in common. However, a direct experimental comparison of the two illusion variants has not been made, therefore, in this research we studied the equivalence of the rubber and virtual hand illusions (RHI and VHI). The sample consisted of 16 subjects (18—25 years). As registration methods we used a subjective sense of ownership of an artificial limb and the proprioceptive drift of the real hand towards the illusory hand. The analysis has proved the equivalence of illusions.

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