Dos Santos Kawata Kelssy Hitomi, Lem Wey Guan, Ono Koki, Oyama Hiroshi
Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2025 Jan 31;19:1526684. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2025.1526684. eCollection 2025.
The gradual synchronization of the movement of one's real hand with a virtual one can effectively induce a sense of embodiment (SoE) with an avatar with depression. Although neuroimaging studies have explored the neural correlates of some SoE subcomponents of visuomotor synchronization, the neural correlates of individual differences in SoE and how humans acquire virtual body representations through SoE subcomponents remain to be investigated.
Here, we used the right hand of a virtual patient with depression in immersive virtual reality (IVR) to induce SoE in participants and measured whole brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were instructed to listen to the audio recording of the IVR experience and visualize movements during the fMRI scan. fMRI data were acquired before and immediately after the visuomotor synchronization IVR experience (target condition) or an asynchronized video experience (control condition), followed by embodiment measures related to the two types of experiences.
All five subcomponents of SoE (sense of ownership, sense of agency, sense of localization, appearance, and response to stimuli) were significantly increased during the visuomotor synchronization IVR experience compared with the asynchronized video experience. A significant negative effect of the SoE score was identified in the frontoparietal and anterior insula only for the visuomotor synchronization IVR experience of guiding the virtual right hand of the avatar with depression, implicating interoceptive and multisensory integration.
We demonstrated that all five subcomponents of the SoE were present, and that decreased activity in the frontoparietal and anterior insula were crucial brain regions for the virtual human body to be perceived as one's own body and promote conscious feelings of embodiment.
将真实手部动作与虚拟手部动作逐渐同步，可有效诱发与患有抑郁症的虚拟化身的身体归属感（SoE）。尽管神经影像学研究已探究了视觉运动同步中某些SoE子成分的神经关联，但SoE个体差异的神经关联以及人类如何通过SoE子成分获得虚拟身体表征仍有待研究。
在此，我们在沉浸式虚拟现实（IVR）中使用患有抑郁症的虚拟患者的右手在参与者中诱发SoE，并使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）测量全脑活动。参与者被要求在fMRI扫描期间收听IVR体验的音频记录并想象动作。在视觉运动同步IVR体验（目标条件）或异步视频体验（对照条件）之前和之后立即采集fMRI数据，随后进行与这两种体验相关的身体归属感测量。
与异步视频体验相比，在视觉运动同步IVR体验期间，SoE的所有五个子成分（所有权感、能动感、定位感、外观和对刺激的反应）均显著增加。仅在引导患有抑郁症的虚拟化身的右手的视觉运动同步IVR体验中，在前额叶顶叶和前脑岛中发现了SoE分数的显著负效应，这暗示了内感受和多感觉整合。
我们证明了SoE的所有五个子成分均存在，并且额叶顶叶和前脑岛活动的减少是虚拟人体被视为自己身体并促进有意识的身体归属感的关键脑区。
