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Body ownership promotes visual awareness
Björn van der Hoort1, Maria Reingardt1, H Henrik Ehrsson1
1Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Elife
|August 23, 2017
Summary
The sense of body ownership enhances visual awareness. This research shows that feeling ownership over a body part, like a hand, makes it more likely to be consciously perceived.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Perception
Background:
- The sense of body ownership is crucial for survival and influences behavior and perception.
- Previous research indicates body ownership scales external space based on body size.
- The impact of body ownership on visual awareness remains less understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how the sense of body ownership affects visual awareness.
- To determine if ownership influences the conscious perception of visual stimuli.
Main Methods:
- Two binocular rivalry experiments were conducted.
- Ownership of a stranger's hand was manipulated using visuotactile stimulation.
- The hand served as one of the rival stimuli presented to the participants.
Main Results:
- Ownership significantly increased the dominance of the hand percept.
- Mere visuotactile stimulation alone did not produce this effect.
- Increased dominance resulted from longer perceptual dominance durations and shorter suppression durations.
Conclusions:
- The sense of body ownership plays a role in promoting visual awareness.
- Ownership enhances conscious perception by increasing the salience of the owned body part.
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