Presence hallucination induction through robotically mediated somatomotor conflicts: A pooled analysis of 25...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Robotics

Background:

• Hallucinations are key symptoms in psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.
• Studying hallucinations in labs is difficult due to limited induction methods.
• Presence hallucination (PH) is a clinically relevant hallucination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically investigate the sensitivity and intensity of PH induction.
• To explore the effects of PH induction on sensory, behavioral, and cognitive aspects.
• To elucidate the role of somatomotor processes in aberrant own body perceptions.

Main Methods:

• Pooled individual-participant data from 25 in-house experiments (N=561).
• Conducted a Bayesian analysis to estimate effects and moderators of PH induction.
• Utilized a previously developed robotics-based protocol for PH induction.

Main Results:

• PH induction was reliably achieved with a medium effect size.
• Individuals with schizotypal traits showed higher sensitivity to PH induction.
• PH induction showed a synergistic relationship with passivity, not strongly dependent on agency.

Conclusions:

• Somatomotor processes play a role in aberrant own body perceptions.
• Findings advance the understanding of psychosis and hallucination.
• Provides statistical priors for future hallucination research.