Bodily disownership is associated with self-concept fragmentation

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Body Ownership

Background:

• The sense of self is complex, involving both bodily and conceptual components.
• Understanding the interplay between bodily self-perception and identity is crucial for mental health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how reduced body ownership influences the conceptual sense of self.
• To explore the link between bodily self-perception and personality trait descriptions.

Main Methods:

• Induced a perceptual illusion to diminish body ownership using asynchronous visuotactile stimulation in 66 healthy individuals.
• Assessed changes in self-description and personality trait ratings.
• Conducted control analyses to rule out alternative explanations.

Main Results:

• Reduced sense of body ownership correlated with more dispersed clusters in self-descriptions.
• The observed effect was not attributable to general semantic factors or the stimulation technique alone.

Conclusions:

• The study demonstrates a flexible interconnection between bodily and conceptual aspects of self.
• Findings have implications for understanding dissociative experiences and mental well-being.