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Selective distortion of body image by asynchronous visuotactile stimulation

Perez-Marcos, D; Martini, M; Fuentes, CT; Bellido Rivas, AI; Haggard, P; Sanchez-Vives, MV; (2017) Selective distortion of body image by asynchronous visuotactile stimulation. Body Image , 24 pp. 55-61. 10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.11.002. Green open access

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Abstract

In the rubber hand illusion (RHI), a rubber hand is felt as being part of one's body. This illusion is evoked by providing synchronous visuotactile stimulation to the fake and real hands. Asynchronous visuotactile stimulation is known not to produce such an illusion of ownership, being commonly used as the control condition. Here we explored the impact of synchronous and asynchronous visuotactile stimulation on the body image. We combined the induction of the RHI with a quantitative test for the internal representation of body metrics (i.e., the positions of key fiducial points on the body relative to each other). We found a significant recalibration of the upper/lower arm lengths following asynchronous visuotactile stimulation. In particular, we observed a selective elongation of the lower arm, a distortion typical of deafferentation. Conversely, synchronous visuotactile stimulation did not alter the estimation of the arm segments' length. Our findings are consistent with a dynamic internal representation of body image that is continuously updated based on incoming multisensory information. Furthermore, the use of asynchronous multisensory stimulation as a neutral condition should be reconsidered since it introduces changes in the body image.

Type: Article
Title: Selective distortion of body image by asynchronous visuotactile stimulation
Location: Netherlands
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.11.002
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.11.002
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Rubber hand illusion, Body image, Visuotactile stimulation, Multisensory correlations, Body ownership, Body representation
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10042703
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