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The Crossmodal Congruency Task as a Means to Obtain an Objective Behavioral Measure in the Rubber Hand Illusion Paradigm
Published on: July 26, 2013
Comparing embodiment experiences in expert meditators and non-meditators using the rubber hand illusion
A Xu1, B H Cullen2, C Penner3
1Department of Cognitive, Linguistics, & Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States; Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Abstract:
One assessment of embodiment is the rubber hand illusion (RHI), a visuo-tactile illusion in which individuals attribute a sense of ownership to a rubber hand and disownership to their real hand. Interestingly, interoception seems to influence RHI susceptibility. In this study, we administered the RHI and the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) to examine embodiment experiences and interoceptive awareness in experienced meditators (n = 15) and non-meditators (n = 15). We found that meditators reported less intensity in rubber hand ownership, but there was no significant difference between groups with respect to disownership of their real hand or drift in finger proprioception. Moreover, we found, from our MAIA results, that disownership experiences were associated with a feeling of trusting one's body in non-meditators and with the ability to maintain attention to unpleasant bodily sensations in meditators. These results suggest a unique relationship between interoceptive awareness and embodiment related to meditation.
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