Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
Center for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Via Rasi e Spinelli 176, 47521, Cesena, FC, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2023 May 9;13(1):7526. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-33747-2.
It is widely accepted that the representation of the body is not fixed and immutable, but rather flexible and constantly updated based on a continuous stream of multisensory information. This mechanism can be very useful to adapt to several situations, but it would not be adaptive if the body representation was too malleable or if it wasn't capable of restoring its integrity after a transient modification. Here we used the Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI) to investigate how quickly the body representation can be modified. Previous studies have investigated the timing of the onset and offset of the illusion, however, they did not assess a fine temporal resolution. Here, we used a potentiometer to record a moment-by-moment rating of the feeling of owning the RH for two minutes during the visuo-tactile stimulation and two minutes following the stimulation. Our results suggest that the feeling of Ownership is already established during the first 19 s of stimulation then it continues to grow, but at a much slower pace. The feeling of Ownership disappears within 66 s from the end of the stimulation. This work sheds new light on the temporal dynamics of the RHI and the malleability of the body self-consciousness.
人们普遍认为，身体的表现不是固定和不变的，而是灵活的，并根据不断的多感官信息进行不断更新。这种机制对于适应几种情况非常有用，但如果身体的表现过于灵活，或者在短暂的修改后无法恢复其完整性，那么它就不会具有适应性。在这里，我们使用橡胶手错觉（RHI）来研究身体表现可以多快被修改。以前的研究已经调查了错觉的开始和结束的时间，但它们没有评估精细的时间分辨率。在这里，我们使用电位计在视觉触觉刺激期间的两分钟和刺激结束后的两分钟内记录对拥有 RH 的感觉的逐点评分。我们的结果表明，所有权的感觉在刺激的前 19 秒内已经建立，然后继续增长，但速度要慢得多。从刺激结束后 66 秒内，所有权的感觉就消失了。这项工作为 RHI 的时间动态和身体自我意识的可塑造性提供了新的视角。
