Interoception, alexithymia, and motor congruency: Psychological drivers of body ownership in virtual reality

Alexithymia, a personality trait marked by difficulty in identifying and describing emotions, is associated with differences in interoception - the ability to perceive and interpret internal bodily signals. Interoception plays a key role in forming a coherent sense of self and contributes to body ownership, the feeling that one's body belongs to oneself. This study explored how interoception and alexithymia influence body ownership in immersive virtual reality, particularly under conditions of motor cue congruency. Findings revealed a negative relationship between alexithymia and interoception, and a positive effect of motor synchrony on body ownership. Interoceptive accuracy (assessed via the heartbeat counting task) showed a trend-level positive association with body ownership when virtual and physical movements were aligned. Given the modest sample size (N = 26) and reliance on a single cardiac interoceptive measure, findings should be considered preliminary and warrant replication in larger, multi-method studies.