Armel K Carrie, Ramachandran V S
Psychology Department, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0109, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2003 Jul 22;270(1523):1499-506. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2003.2364.
Subjects perceived touch sensations as arising from a table (or a rubber hand) when both the table (or the rubber hand) and their own real hand were repeatedly tapped and stroked in synchrony with the real hand hidden from view. If the table or rubber hand was then 'injured', subjects displayed a strong skin conductance response (SCR) even though nothing was done to the real hand. Sensations could even be projected to anatomically impossible locations. The illusion was much less vivid, as indicated by subjective reports and SCR, if the real hand was simultaneously visible during stroking, or if the real hand was hidden but touched asynchronously. The fact that the illusion could be significantly diminished when the real hand was simultaneously visible suggests that the illusion and associated SCRs were due to perceptual assimilation of the table (or rubber hand) into one's body image rather than associative conditioning. These experiments demonstrate the malleability of body image and the brain's remarkable capacity for detecting statistical correlations in the sensory input.
当桌子（或橡胶手）和他们自己的真实手在与隐藏起来不让他们看到的真实手同步的情况下被反复轻敲和抚摸时，受试者会感觉触摸感来自桌子（或橡胶手）。如果随后桌子或橡胶手“受伤”，即使真实的手没有受到任何伤害，受试者也会表现出强烈的皮肤电反应（SCR）。感觉甚至可以投射到解剖学上不可能的位置。如果在抚摸过程中真实的手同时可见，或者如果真实的手被隐藏但异步触摸，那么根据主观报告和皮肤电反应表明，这种错觉就不那么生动了。当真实的手同时可见时错觉会显著减弱，这一事实表明，这种错觉和相关的皮肤电反应是由于将桌子（或橡胶手）感知同化到一个人的身体形象中，而不是联想条件作用。这些实验证明了身体形象的可塑性以及大脑在检测感觉输入中的统计相关性方面的非凡能力。
