Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 6, 2026
10:14
Motor Imagery Performance Through Embodied Digital Twins in a Virtual Reality-Enabled Brain-Computer Interface Environment
Published on: May 10, 2024
Body-technology interfaces: digital corporeality and emerging psychopathology
Valerio Ricci1, Giovanni Martinotti2, Stefania Chiappini3
1Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria San Luigi Gonzaga, Orbassano, Italy.
Frontiers in Psychiatry
|July 23, 2026
Summary
New body-technology interfaces like wearables and VR are creating novel psychological conditions. Research is needed to validate these emerging psychopathology constructs and develop treatments for technology-related embodiment disorders.
Area of Science:
- Psychopathology
- Neuroscience
- Embodiment Studies
Background:
- The rise of body-technology interfaces (wearables, VR, AR) significantly impacts embodied experience.
- This technological integration raises new questions for psychopathology research and clinical practice.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine how modern body-technology interfaces influence bodily experience.
- To identify proposed clinical presentations arising from these interactions.
- To discuss theoretical grounding and implications for assessment and treatment.
Main Methods:
- An interdisciplinary review integrating phenomenological, neuroscientific, and clinical perspectives.
- Literature search (1990-2025) using terms related to embodiment, body-technology interfaces, and emerging psychopathology.
- Selection of sources spanning neuroscientific, clinical, phenomenological, and ethnographic perspectives.
Main Results:
- Eight proposed clinical constructs were described across four domains: body image, virtual embodiment, technologically mediated proprioception, and behavioral addictions.
- These constructs are grounded in neurobiological mechanisms of body representation, interoception, and reward circuits.
- Current evidence is primarily theoretical; constructs are viewed as technology-amplified variants or hypotheses.
Conclusions:
- Body-technology interfaces create psychopathological presentations potentially outside current clinical frameworks.
- Future research must validate constructs, develop assessments, and establish therapeutic protocols.
- Ethical considerations regarding access and algorithmic normalization require attention.
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