Changing hands: persistent alterations to body image following brief exposure to multisensory distortions

The dynamic flexibility of body representation has been highlighted through numerous lines of research that range from clinical studies reporting disorders of body ownership, to experimentally induced somatic illusions that have provided evidence for the embodiment of manipulated representations and...

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Main Authors: Perera, Andrea Treshi-Marie, Newport, Roger, McKenzie, Kirsten J.
Format: Article
Published: Springer 2017
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Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46886/
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author Perera, Andrea Treshi-Marie
Newport, Roger
McKenzie, Kirsten J.
author_facet Perera, Andrea Treshi-Marie
Newport, Roger
McKenzie, Kirsten J.
author_sort Perera, Andrea Treshi-Marie
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description The dynamic flexibility of body representation has been highlighted through numerous lines of research that range from clinical studies reporting disorders of body ownership, to experimentally induced somatic illusions that have provided evidence for the embodiment of manipulated representations and even fake limbs. While most studies have reported that enlargement of body parts alters somatic perception, and that these can be more readily embodied, shrunken body parts have not been found to consistently alter somatic experiences, perhaps due to reduced feelings of ownership over smaller body parts. Over two experiments, we aimed to investigate the mechanisms responsible for altered somatic representations following exposure to both enlarged and shrunken body parts. Participants were given the impression that their hand and index finger were either longer or shorter than veridical length and asked to judge veridical finger length using online and offline size estimation tasks, as well as to report the degree of ownership towards the distorted finger and hand representations. Ownership was claimed over all distorted representations of the hand and finger and no differences were seen across ownership ratings, while the online and offline measurements of perceived size demonstrated differing response patterns. These findings suggest that ownership towards manipulated body representations is more bidirectional than previously thought and also suggest differences in perceived body representation with respect to the method of measurement suggesting that online and offline tasks may tap into different aspects of body representation.
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spelling nottingham-468862020-05-04T19:57:07Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46886/ Changing hands: persistent alterations to body image following brief exposure to multisensory distortions Perera, Andrea Treshi-Marie Newport, Roger McKenzie, Kirsten J. The dynamic flexibility of body representation has been highlighted through numerous lines of research that range from clinical studies reporting disorders of body ownership, to experimentally induced somatic illusions that have provided evidence for the embodiment of manipulated representations and even fake limbs. While most studies have reported that enlargement of body parts alters somatic perception, and that these can be more readily embodied, shrunken body parts have not been found to consistently alter somatic experiences, perhaps due to reduced feelings of ownership over smaller body parts. Over two experiments, we aimed to investigate the mechanisms responsible for altered somatic representations following exposure to both enlarged and shrunken body parts. Participants were given the impression that their hand and index finger were either longer or shorter than veridical length and asked to judge veridical finger length using online and offline size estimation tasks, as well as to report the degree of ownership towards the distorted finger and hand representations. Ownership was claimed over all distorted representations of the hand and finger and no differences were seen across ownership ratings, while the online and offline measurements of perceived size demonstrated differing response patterns. These findings suggest that ownership towards manipulated body representations is more bidirectional than previously thought and also suggest differences in perceived body representation with respect to the method of measurement suggesting that online and offline tasks may tap into different aspects of body representation. Springer 2017-06 Article PeerReviewed Perera, Andrea Treshi-Marie, Newport, Roger and McKenzie, Kirsten J. (2017) Changing hands: persistent alterations to body image following brief exposure to multisensory distortions. Experimental Brain Research, 235 (6). pp. 1809-1821. ISSN 1432-1106 Body representation Multisensory illusions MIRAGE Body ownership Embodiment Finger stretching https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00221-017-4935-2 doi:10.1007/s00221-017-4935-2 doi:10.1007/s00221-017-4935-2
spellingShingle Body representation
Multisensory illusions
MIRAGE
Body ownership
Embodiment
Finger stretching
Perera, Andrea Treshi-Marie
Newport, Roger
McKenzie, Kirsten J.
Changing hands: persistent alterations to body image following brief exposure to multisensory distortions
title Changing hands: persistent alterations to body image following brief exposure to multisensory distortions
title_full Changing hands: persistent alterations to body image following brief exposure to multisensory distortions
title_fullStr Changing hands: persistent alterations to body image following brief exposure to multisensory distortions
title_full_unstemmed Changing hands: persistent alterations to body image following brief exposure to multisensory distortions
title_short Changing hands: persistent alterations to body image following brief exposure to multisensory distortions
title_sort changing hands: persistent alterations to body image following brief exposure to multisensory distortions
topic Body representation
Multisensory illusions
MIRAGE
Body ownership
Embodiment
Finger stretching
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46886/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46886/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46886/