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The self and the Bayesian brain: Testing probabilistic models of body ownership through a self-localization task
Tommaso Bertoni1, Giulio Mastria1, Nikita Akulenko1
1MySpace Lab, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital of Lausanne, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Summary
This study shows that the brain uses optimal Bayesian processing to determine hand ownership, integrating visual and proprioceptive information. This supports the idea that body ownership arises from behaviorally optimal multisensory integration.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Psychology
Background:
- Body ownership is crucial for self-consciousness.
- It's theorized to arise from Bayesian optimal estimation of multisensory congruence.
- Rigorous empirical evidence for this optimality is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test a Bayesian model of hand ownership using visuo-proprioceptive congruences.
- To rigorously assess the optimality of multisensory integration in body ownership.
- To compare Bayesian and non-Bayesian models of multisensory integration.
Main Methods:
- A virtual-reality reaching task was used to induce illusory hand ownership via spatio-temporal mismatches.
- Reaching errors served as an implicit proxy for hand ownership.
- Bayesian and non-Bayesian models were compared against empirical data.
Main Results:
- Proprioceptive precision correlated with model-fitted parameters, supporting Bayesian optimality.
- Reaching errors implicitly reflected hand ownership.
- Explicit ownership ratings correlated with reaching errors.
Conclusions:
- Visuo-proprioceptive integration for hand ownership approximates Bayesian optimality.
- Body ownership is a bottom-up process driven by optimal multisensory integration.
- This provides evidence for computational models of self-consciousness.
