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Creating Virtual-hand and Virtual-face Illusions to Investigate Self-representation

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Strange-face illusions during inter-subjective gazing.

Giovanni B Caputo¹

¹DIPSU, University of Urbino, via Saffi 15, 61029 Urbino, Italy. giovanni.caputo@uniurb.it

Consciousness and Cognition

|September 18, 2012

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Gazing at another person's face in low light induces strange-face illusions, revealing shared unconscious responses. This inter-subjective phenomenon highlights the connection between embodied representations and visual perception.

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Neuroscience
Visual Perception

Background:

The 'strange-face in the mirror' illusion involves perceiving distorted faces when viewing one's own reflection.
This illusion can evoke archetypal, familial, or even animalistic facial perceptions.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate strange-face illusions induced by inter-subjective gazing (face-to-face).
To compare inter-subjective gazing with mirror-gazing regarding illusion frequency and characteristics.
To explore the potential for unconscious synchronization of responses during these illusions.

Main Methods:

Participants engaged in face-to-face gazing in a dimly lit room.
Comparison with traditional mirror-gazing conditions.
Measurement of subjective experiences and electrophysiological responses (event-related potentials).

Main Results:

Inter-subjective gazing generated more diverse strange-face illusions than mirror-gazing.
Illusions were dissociative of self, with a moderate sense of reality, suggesting temporary loss of self-agency.
Unconscious synchronization of event-related responses was observed in some pairs.

Conclusions:

Inter-subjective strange-face illusions may arise from the binding of embodied facial representations with the partner's visual face.
Unconscious facial mimicry could facilitate illusion conjunction, leading to coordinated responses.
This suggests a mechanism for unconscious joint action and response coordination driven by shared visual-perceptual experiences.