Autonomic emotional responses to the induction of the rubber-hand illusion in those that report anomalous bodily experiences: evidence for specific psychophysiological components associated with illusory body representations.

We present the first study to examine indicators of autonomic arousal associated with shifts in body image and as a function of predisposition to report spontaneous anomalous bodily experiences (ABEs) from nonclinical samples. Participants completed the Temporal-Lobe Experience subscale of the Cardiff Anomalous Perception scale-a measure associated with anomalous experiences resulting from temporal lobe dysfunction (Bell, Halligan, & Ellis, 2006) followed by a rubber-hand illusion experiment. We examined: (a) the time taken to induce the illusion, (b) effects on the tonic skin conductance level, and (c) phasic skin conductance responses in the form of nonspecific skin conductance responses (NS-SCRs) in the period leading up to the declaration of the illusion. The illusion took significantly longer to induce in those reporting high levels of ABEs, relative to those reporting low levels of such experiences. A significant increase in the tonic skin conductance level and the frequency of NS-SCRs occurred in the period leading directly up to the declaration of the illusion. Both measures were significantly increased for those reporting higher-levels of ABEs. The data question generic notions of "weak" body representations subserving increasing malleability in body image. Instead, they lend general support for a "dysconnection" account of anomalous bodily experiences-at least for some nonclinical hallucinators. Theoretical considerations are discussed.