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Updated: Jun 3, 2026

Creating Virtual-hand and Virtual-face Illusions to Investigate Self-representation
Published on: March 1, 2017
Rubber hand illusion, empathy, and schizotypal experiences in terms of self-other representations
Tomohisa Asai1, Zhu Mao, Eriko Sugimori
1Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Science, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, Japan. as@beck.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Abstract:
When participants observed a rubber hand being touched, their sense of touch was activated (rubber hand illusion: RHI). While this illusion might be caused by multi-modal integration, it may also be related to empathic function, which enables us to simulate the observed information. We examined individual differences in the RHI, including empathic and schizotypal personality traits, as previous research had suggested that schizophrenic patients would be more subject to the RHI. The results indicated that people who experience a stronger RHI might have stronger empathic and schizotypal personalites simultaneously. We discussed these relationships in terms of self-other representations.
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