Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, UK.
Sensorimotor Development Research Unit, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.
Dev Sci. 2018 May;21(3):e12557. doi: 10.1111/desc.12557. Epub 2017 Mar 22.
The present work investigates the development of bodily self-consciousness and its relation to multisensory bodily information, by measuring for the first time the development of responses to the full body illusion in childhood. We tested three age groups of children: 6- to 7-year-olds (n = 28); 8- to 9-year-olds (n = 21); 10- to 11-year-olds (n = 19), and a group of adults (n = 31). Each participant wore a head-mounted display (HMD) which displayed a view from a video camera positioned 2 metres behind their own back. Thus, they could view a virtual body from behind. We manipulated visuo-tactile synchrony by showing the participants a view of their virtual back being stroked with a stick at the same time and same place as their real back (synchronous condition), or at different times and places (asynchronous condition). After each period of stroking, we measured three aspects of bodily self-consciousness: drift in perceived self-location, self-identification with the virtual body, and touch referral to the virtual body. Results show that self-identification with the virtual body was significantly stronger in the synchronous condition than in the asynchronous condition even in the youngest group tested; however, the size of this effect increased with age. Touch referral to the virtual body was greater in the synchronous condition than in the asynchronous condition only for 10- to 11-year-olds and adults. Drift in perceived self-location was greater in the synchronous condition than in the asynchronous condition only for adults. Thus, the youngest age tested can self-identify with a virtual body, but the links between multisensory signals and bodily self-consciousness develop significantly across childhood. This suggests a long period of development of the bodily self and exciting potential for the use of virtual reality technologies with children.
本研究旨在探讨身体自我意识的发展及其与多感觉身体信息的关系，通过首次测量儿童对全身幻觉的反应发展来实现。我们测试了三个年龄组的儿童：6-7 岁（n=28）；8-9 岁（n=21）；10-11 岁（n=19）和一组成年人（n=31）。每个参与者都戴着一个头戴式显示器（HMD），该显示器显示了一个来自 2 米后他们自己背部的摄像机的视图。因此，他们可以从后面查看虚拟身体。我们通过以相同的时间和地点（同步条件）或不同的时间和地点（异步条件）向参与者展示对虚拟背部的虚拟棒的strokes动来操纵视触同步。strokes动后，我们测量了身体自我意识的三个方面：感知自我位置的漂移，对虚拟身体的自我认同以及对虚拟身体的触摸引用。结果表明，即使在受测的最小年龄组中，与虚拟身体的自我认同在同步条件下也明显强于异步条件；但是，这种效应的大小随年龄而增加。只有 10-11 岁的儿童和成年人才会对虚拟身体的触摸引用大于同步条件下的异步条件。只有成年人在感知自我位置的漂移大于同步条件下的异步条件。因此，受测的最小年龄可以对虚拟身体进行自我认同，但是多感觉信号和身体自我意识之间的联系在整个儿童期都有明显的发展。这表明身体自我的发展具有很长的时期，并且虚拟现实技术在儿童中的应用具有很大的潜力。
