Embodying an elderly virtual avatar impairs metacontrol persistence but not flexibility in college students

The enfacement illusion occurs when synchronous multisensory correlations between a viewed face and one's own face lead to the perception of illusory ownership, in which participants incorporate the viewed face's physical and social features into one's body representation. In this study, we examined whether young participants exposed to synchronous visuo-motor correlations with a virtual elderly face would perceive ownership of that face, exhibit subjective aging and executive function decline resembling physiological aging. Questionnaire and subjective age ratings confirmed that illusory ownership and agency were successfully induced for same-gender virtual elderly faces. Interestingly, however, synchronous multisensory correlations impaired performance in a cognitive-control task calling for metacontrol persistence (a Simon task), but not in cognitive-control tasks calling for flexibility (N-back task and task switching). These findings align with prior evidence that synchrony with another face/body facilitates the integration of external features into self-representation, and that this affects cognitive control; but they also demonstrate that the control functions being affected are specific to the type of embodiment.