Sustained rubber hand illusion after the end of visuotactile stimulation with a similar time course for the reduction of subjective ownership and proprioceptive drift

Abdulkarim, Zakaryah; Hayatou, Zineb; Ehrsson, H. Henrik

doi:10.1007/s00221-021-06211-8

Cited by 29 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…The level of proprioceptive drift is significantly greater after the synchronous condition compared to after the asynchronous and other control conditions; in addition, typically, the stronger the subjective illusion, the stronger is this difference in proprioceptive drift ( Sanchez-Vives et al, 2010 ; Abdulkarim and Ehrsson, 2016 ). Although proprioceptive drift can occur outside the context of the RHI ( Holmes et al, 2006 ) and the subjective illusion cannot be equated with drift ( Rohde et al, 2011 ), the significant differences in proprioceptive drift between the synchronous and asynchronous conditions have been well replicated ( Tsakiris and Haggard, 2005 ; Tsakiris et al, 2010 ; Abdulkarim and Ehrsson, 2016 ; Abdulkarim et al, 2021 ); proprioceptive drift is related to the RHI because visuoproprioceptive combination and recalibration are key elements of the illusion ( Ehrsson et al, 2004 ; Abdulkarim and Ehrsson, 2016 ; Fuchs et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multisensory Integration Dominates Hypnotisability and Expectations in the Rubber Hand Illusion

Slater

Ehrsson

2022

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Some recent papers by P. Lush and colleagues have argued that the rubber hand illusion (RHI), where participants can feel a rubber hand as their own under appropriate multisensory stimulation, may be caused mainly by hypnotic suggestibility and expectations (demand characteristics). These papers rely primarily on a study with 353 participants who took part in a RHI experiment carried out in a classical way with brush stroking. Participants experienced a synchronous condition where the rubber hand was seen to be touched in synchrony with touch felt on their corresponding hidden real hand, or the touches were applied asynchronously as a control. Each participant had a related measure of their hypnotisability on a scale known as the Sussex-Waterloo Scale of Hypnotisability (SWASH). The authors found a correlation between the questionnaire ratings of the RHI in the synchronous condition and the SWASH score. From this, they concluded that the RHI is largely driven by suggestibility and further proposed that suggestibility and expectations may even entirely explain the RHI. Here we examine their claims in a series of extensive new analyses of their data. We find that at every level of SWASH, the synchronous stimulation results in greater levels of the illusion than the asynchronous condition; moreover, proprioceptive drift is greater in the synchronous case at every level of SWASH. Thus, while the level of hypnotisability does modestly influence the subjective reports (higher SWASH is associated with somewhat higher illusion ratings), the major difference between the synchronous and asynchronous stimulation is always present. Furthermore, by including in the model the participants’ expectancy ratings of how strongly they initially believed they would experience the RHI in the two conditions, we show that expectations had a very small effect on the illusion ratings; model comparisons further demonstrate that the multisensory condition is two-to-three-times as dominant as the other factors, with hypnotisability contributing modestly and expectations negligibly. Thus, although the results indicate that trait suggestibility may modulate the RHI, presumably through intersubject variations in top-down factors, the findings also suggest that the primary explanation for the RHI is as a multisensory bodily illusion.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multisensory Integration Dominates Hypnotisability and Expectations in the Rubber Hand Illusion

Slater

Ehrsson

2022

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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“…Prior observations of the disembodiment of a previously embodied physical rubber hand had supported accounts that conceptualize body representation as a set of multisensory bindings (Abdulkarim et al, 2021;Pfister et al, 2021). We took these accounts to expect disembodiment of a 2D virtual hand to unfold steadily over time.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…The studies described so far have focused on disembodiment of one's own physical body parts. In contrast, a third approach to studying disembodiment was used in a recently proposed paradigm that focused on disembodiment of a previously embodied rubber hand (Pfister et al, 2021; for a similar design, see Abdulkarim et al, 2021). This study aimed to distinguish between two theoretical models of disembodiment: a persistence model and an updating model.…”

Section: Studying Disembodimentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Instant disembodiment of virtual body parts

Eck

Dignath

Kalckert

et al. 2022

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Evidence from multisensory body illusions suggests that body representations may be malleable, for instance, by embodying external objects. However, adjusting body representations to current task demands also implies that external objects become disembodied from the body representation if they are no longer required. In the current web-based study, we induced the embodiment of a two-dimensional (2D) virtual hand that could be controlled by active movements of a computer mouse or on a touchpad. Following initial embodiment, we probed for disembodiment by comparing two conditions: Participants either continued moving the virtual hand or they stopped moving and kept the hand still. Based on theoretical accounts that conceptualize body representations as a set of multisensory bindings, we expected gradual disembodiment of the virtual hand if the body representations are no longer updated through correlated visuomotor signals. In contrast to our prediction, the virtual hand was instantly disembodied as soon as participants stopped moving it. This result was replicated in two follow-up experiments. The observed instantaneous disembodiment might suggest that humans are sensitive to the rapid changes that characterize action and body in virtual environments, and hence adjust corresponding body representations particularly swiftly.

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“…We therefore do not interpret difference measures between synchronous and asynchronous conditions here, and further, we caution against their continued use (e.g. Abdulkarim et al, 2021;Reader et al, 2021b) given the now well-established issues (see also Kalckert et al, 2019 for a further argument against interpreting a difference between synchronous and asynchronous conditions as evidence of illusion experience).…”

Section: Quantifying Change In Subjective Experience In Rhimentioning

confidence: 95%

Serious Problems With Interpreting Rubber Hand “Illusion” Experiments

Roseboom

Lush

2022

Collabra: Psychology

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The rubber hand “illusion” (RHI), in which participants report experiences of ownership over a fake hand, appears to demonstrate that subjective ownership over one’s body can be easily disrupted. It was recently shown that existing methods of controlling for suggestion effects in RHI responding are invalid. It was also shown that propensity to agree with RHI ownership statements is correlated with trait phenomenological control (response to imaginative suggestion). There is currently disagreement regarding the extent to which this relationship may cofound interpretation of RHI measures. Here we present the results of simulated experiments to demonstrate that a relationship between trait phenomenological control and RHI responding of the size reported would fundamentally change the way existing RHI results must be interpreted. Using real participant data, each simulated experiment used a sample biased in selection for trait phenomenological control. We find that using experiment samples comprised only of participants higher in trait phenomenological control almost guarantees that an experiment provides evidence consistent with RHI. By contrast, samples comprised of only participants lower in trait phenomenological control find evidence for RHI only around half the time – and of greater concern, evidence specifically for “ownership” experience just 4% of the time. These findings clearly contradict claims that the magnitude of relationship between phenomenological control and RHI responding is a minor concern, demonstrating that the presence of participants higher in trait phenomenological control in a given RHI experiment sample is critical for finding evidence consistent with RHI. Further study and theorising regarding RHI (and related effects) must take into account the role that trait phenomenological control plays in participant experience and responses during RHI experiments.

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Sustained rubber hand illusion after the end of visuotactile stimulation with a similar time course for the reduction of subjective ownership and proprioceptive drift

Cited by 29 publications

References 58 publications

Multisensory Integration Dominates Hypnotisability and Expectations in the Rubber Hand Illusion

Multisensory Integration Dominates Hypnotisability and Expectations in the Rubber Hand Illusion

Instant disembodiment of virtual body parts

Serious Problems With Interpreting Rubber Hand “Illusion” Experiments

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