Cowie Dorothy, Gottwald Janna M, Bird Laura-Ashleigh, Bremner Andrew J
Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, UK.
Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Sci Rep. 2022 Nov 11;12(1):19281. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-23716-6.
Knowledge of one's own body size is a crucial facet of body representation, both for acting on the environment and perhaps also for constraining body ownership. However, representations of body size may be somewhat plastic, particularly to allow for physical growth in childhood. Here we report a developmental investigation into the role of hand size in body representation (the sense of body ownership, perception of hand position, and perception of own-hand size). Using the rubber hand illusion paradigm, this study used different fake hand sizes (60%, 80%, 100%, 120% or 140% of typical size) in three age groups (6- to 7-year-olds, 12- to 13-year-olds, and adults; N = 229). We found no evidence that hand size constrains ownership or position: participants embodied hands which were both larger and smaller than their own, and indeed judged their own hands to have changed size following the illusion. Children and adolescents embodied the fake hands more than adults, with a greater tendency to feel their own hand had changed size. Adolescents were particularly sensitive to multisensory information. In sum, we found substantial plasticity in the representation of own-body size, with partial support for the hypothesis that children have looser representations than adults.
了解自己的身体大小是身体表征的一个关键方面，这对于与环境互动以及可能对限制身体所有权都很重要。然而，身体大小的表征可能具有一定的可塑性，特别是为了适应儿童时期的身体生长。在此，我们报告一项关于手的大小在身体表征（身体所有权感、手部位置感知和自身手大小感知）中作用的发展性研究。本研究采用橡胶手错觉范式，在三个年龄组（6至7岁、12至13岁和成年人；N = 229）中使用不同的假手大小（典型大小的60%、80%、100%、120%或140%）。我们没有发现手的大小会限制所有权或位置的证据：参与者将比自己手大或小的手具象化，并且实际上在错觉之后判断自己的手大小发生了变化。儿童和青少年比成年人更能将假手具象化，并且更倾向于感觉自己的手大小发生了变化。青少年对多感官信息特别敏感。总之，我们发现自身身体大小的表征具有很大的可塑性，部分支持了儿童比成年人的表征更宽松这一假设。
