Body integrity identity disorder using augmented reality: a symptom reduction study

Abstract

Body integrity identity disorder (BIID) is a rare condition characterised by a discrepancy between specific areas of an individual’s perceived body image and body schema which causes the individual to disassociate those physical areas of their body from their internal representation. There are currently no efficacious, ethically unambiguous means for achieving long-lasting symptom reductions. In the case we present, two patients with BIID underwent an augmented reality (AR)-based simulation that virtually amputated their alienated limbs, allowing them to experience their ideal selves. During the exposure, both patients reported reductions in BIID-related complaints. These preliminary results suggest the existence of a possible therapeutic and diagnostic potential that AR possesses, which warrants further consideration within clinical healthcare settings.

White Matter Abnormalities in Body Integrity Dysphoria

“…This conceptual framework might be substantiated by the correlative evidence showing that the less concentration of gray matter in rSPL, the stronger an individual's amputation desire and pretending behaviour (Saetta et al, 2020). In line with this, it has been shown that BID individuals experience a temporary relief from the desire for amputation, when the undesired leg is experimentally made to fade off from visual awareness (i.e., disappearing limb trick, (Stone et al, 2018) or while undergoing augmented or virtual reality to transiently adapt the appearance of illusory embodiment to the desired body opening the way for noninvasive therapeutics (Turbyne et al, 2021). Importantly, in line with this preliminary evidence suggesting that the mismatch between phenomenal and physical body would engage the visual representations, our findings show a specific pattern of reduced structural connectivity of the rSPL with visual processing brain areas.…”

Affective and Physiological Responses During Acute Pain in Virtual Reality: The Effect of First-Person Versus Third-Person Perspective

“…This study consisted of two conditions, a first person perspective and a third person perspective, using a repeated measures withinsubjects design. For a complete overview of the experimental design, please see Figure 2, which has been adopted and modified from the method section of previous research (Turbyne et al, 2021). Before starting either condition, the participants underwent a relaxation phase which presented a series of five different neutral images taken from a validated database (Lang et al, 2008) which were adopted for use in an HMD at a rate of one stimulus per minute.…”

Is this my foot? Experimentally induced disownership in individuals with body integrity dysphoria

“…Furthermore, while the presented paradigm is interesting to investigate potential altered multisensory integration mechanisms in BID, another interesting avenue would also be to investigate how such an experimentally induced body ownership illusion could alter the desire for amputation or the sense of estrangement from the leg. Multisensory stimulation and bodily illusion paradigms have previously been argued to bear therapeutic potential (Lenggenhager et al, 2015;Stone et al, 2018;Turbyne et al, 2021). While it was not the main aim of the current study, we added one question after the long blocks on how the body ownership of the actual undesired body part was affected by the experiment.…”