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Creating Virtual-hand and Virtual-face Illusions to Investigate Self-representation
Published on: March 1, 2017
The rubber hand illusion: sensitivity and reference frame for body ownership
Marcello Costantini1, Patrick Haggard
1Department of Clinical Sciences and Bio-imaging, University of Chieti, Via Dei Vestini 33, Chieti, Italy. marcello.costantini@unich.it
Consciousness and Cognition
|February 24, 2007
Summary
The Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI) demonstrates body ownership is sensitive to spatial mismatches. This illusion relies on a hand-centered reference frame, not external space, for visual-tactile correlation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Somatosensory research
Background:
- The Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI) occurs when synchronous visual and tactile stimulation of a real and a fake hand leads to a sense of ownership over the fake hand.
- Understanding the spatial reference frames involved in body ownership is crucial for explaining multisensory integration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how spatial mismatches in visual and tactile input affect the Rubber Hand Illusion.
- To determine whether the illusion is sensitive to mismatches in hand posture versus stimulation.
- To explore the role of hand-centered versus external spatial reference frames in body ownership.
Main Methods:
- Subjects experienced synchronous or asynchronous tactile stimulation on their own hand and a rubber hand, while viewing the rubber hand.
- Spatial mismatches were introduced by altering the subject's hand posture or stimulation, or by altering the rubber hand's posture or stimulation.
- The strength of the RHI was assessed by subjective reports and objective measures.
Main Results:
- The RHI was sensitive to spatial mismatches in tactile stimulation.
- The illusion persisted with small changes in the subject's hand posture but disappeared when the rubber hand's posture was altered.
- The RHI was maintained when stimulation was congruent in a hand-centered frame, even with external spatial incongruence.
- Conversely, the RHI diminished when stimulation was incongruent in hand-centered space but congruent in external space.
Conclusions:
- The visual-tactile correlation underlying the RHI is computed within a hand-centered reference frame.
- This hand-centered frame is updated dynamically with changes in body posture.
- Multisensory integration for body ownership relies on interpreting current sensory evidence within a pre-existing mental body representation.
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