Influence of vestibular signals on bodily self-consciousness: Different sensory weighting strategies based on visual dependency

Contributions of Body-Orientation to Mental Ball Dropping Task During Out-of-Body Experiences

“…Over the years, studies employed full-body ownership illusion to study not only changes in the body-ownership but also used it to study changes in self-location (Ehrsson, 2007;Lenggenhager et al, 2007;Ionta et al, 2011b;Guterstam et al, 2015a). In fact, within the scope of the present article, a previous study by Tekgün and Erdeniz (2021) showed that full-body ownership illusion can be induced in a supine body position, providing support for the influence of vestibular signals on illusionary ownership and changes in self-location (Lenggenhager et al, 2009;Pfeiffer et al, 2014b;Pavlidou et al, 2018). Thus, it was suggested that the vestibular system and its significant role in body orientation is the main modulator of multisensory processing (Lopez et al, 2009;Lopez and Blanke, 2011;Kaski et al, 2016).…”

“…After the mouse was retrieved, the participants were fitted with the HMD and given the VR controllers to hold. During the 1-min adaptation period, the participants were familiarized with the virtual body as they observed their head and arm movements, while their feet remained stationary (Tekgün and Erdeniz, 2021 ). Following that, the experimenter retrieved the controllers and returned the mouse to the participants, who were asked to wait for instructions before using it.…”

“…Then, the full-body ownership illusion was induced for 1 min through visuo-tactile stimulation by tapping and stroking participants' physical body synchronously with a visual stimulation on the virtual body. During the illusion, the participants were instructed to make no bodily movements, but to focus on the visual stimulus on the virtual body by looking either directly from 1PP or in the virtual mirror reflection (Tekgün and Erdeniz, 2021 ).…”

“…This was evidenced by a wide range of experimental studies revealing that body orientation influences different aspects of bodily self-consciousness, such as perspective and self-location change (Lopez et al, 2008b(Lopez et al, , 2015Lenggenhager et al, 2009;Thür et al, 2019;Tekgün and Erdeniz, 2021). In line with such findings, the supine body position (body-orientation in pitch axis) was shown to be associated with less accurate verticality judgments compared to sitting or standing positions (Templeton, 1973;Lichtenstein and Saucer, 1974;Goodenough et al, 1981;Tekgün and Erdeniz, 2021). This difference was supported by an early study by Saj et al (2005), showing that patients with spatial neglect improved their performance in verticality judgments in the supine position, due to reduced asymmetrical otolith inputs.…”

“…Thus, it was suggested that the vestibular system and its significant role in body orientation is the main modulator of multisensory processing (Lopez et al, 2009;Lopez and Blanke, 2011;Kaski et al, 2016). This was evidenced by a wide range of experimental studies revealing that body orientation influences different aspects of bodily self-consciousness, such as perspective and self-location change (Lopez et al, 2008b(Lopez et al, , 2015Lenggenhager et al, 2009;Thür et al, 2019;Tekgün and Erdeniz, 2021). In line with such findings, the supine body position (body-orientation in pitch axis) was shown to be associated with less accurate verticality judgments compared to sitting or standing positions (Templeton, 1973;Lichtenstein and Saucer, 1974;Goodenough et al, 1981;Tekgün and Erdeniz, 2021).…”