Order effects in the rubber hand illusion

Rubber Hand Illusion ◽

Order Effects ◽

Rubber Hand ◽

Demand Characteristics ◽

Test Order ◽

Integration Mechanisms ◽

Synchronous Condition ◽

The Difference ◽

Seeing a fake hand brushed in synchrony with brushstrokes to a participant’s hand (the rubber hand illusion; RHI) prompts reports of referred touch, illusory ownership and that the real hand has drifted toward the fake hand (proprioceptive drift). According to one theory, RHI effects are attributable to multisensory integration mechanisms, but they may alternatively (or additionally) reflect the generation of experience to meet expectancies arising from demand characteristics (phenomenological control). Multisensory integration accounts are supported by contrasting synchronous and asynchronous brush stroking conditions, typically presented in counter-balanced order. This contrast is known to be confounded by demand characteristics, but to date there has been no exploration of the role of demand characteristics relating to condition-order. In an exploratory study, existing data from a rubber hand study (n = 124) were analysed to test order effects. Synchronous condition illusion report and the difference between synchronous and asynchronous conditions in both report and proprioceptive drift were greater when the asynchronous condition was performed first (and therefore participants were exposed to the questionnaire materials). These order effects have implications for interpretation of reports of ownership experience: in particular, there was no mean ownership agreement in the synchronous-first group. These data support the theory that reports of ownership of a rubber hand are at least partially attributable to phenomenological control in response to demand characteristics.

Higher Emotional Intelligence Is Associated With a Stronger Rubber Hand Illusion

Multisensory Research ◽

10.1163/22134808-00002577 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 30 (7-8) ◽

pp. 615-637 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Olga Perepelkina ◽

Maria Boboleva ◽

Galina Arina ◽

Valentina Nikolaeva

Keyword(s):

Emotional Intelligence ◽

Rubber Hand Illusion ◽

Body Ownership ◽

Rubber Hand ◽

Additional Measure ◽

Related Information ◽

Subjective Reports ◽

Processing Factors ◽

The aim of the study was to investigate how emotion information processing factors, such as alexithymia and emotional intelligence, modulate body ownership and influence multisensory integration during the ‘rubber hand illusion’ (RHI) task. It was previously shown that alexithymia correlates with RHI, and we suggested that emotional intelligence should also be a top-down factor of body ownership, since it was not shown in previous experiments. We elaborated the study of Grynberg and Pollatos [Front. Hum. Neurosci.9(2015) 357] with an additional measure of emotional intelligence, and propose an explanation for the interrelation of emotion and body ownership processing. Eighty subjects took part in the RHI experiment and completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). Only MSCEIT was detected to be a significant predictor of the subjective measure of the RHI. There were no significant correlations between alexithymia scores and the test statements of the RHI or the proprioceptive drift, thus we did not replicate the results of Grynberg and Pollatos. However, alexithymia correlated with the control statements of subjective reports of the illusion, which might be explained as a disruption of the ability to discriminate and describe bodily experience. Therefore, (1) alexithymia seems to be connected with difficulties in conscious or verbal processing of body-related information, and (2) higher emotional intelligence might improve multisensory integration of body-related signals and reflect better predictive models of self-processing.

What do participants expect to experience in the rubber hand illusion?

10.31234/osf.io/d8x9y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Arran T Reader

Keyword(s):

Subjective Experience ◽

The Body ◽

Rubber Hand Illusion ◽

Body Ownership ◽

Rubber Hand ◽

Demand Characteristics ◽

Open Questions ◽

Synchronous Condition ◽

Subjective Reports

The sense of body ownership (the feeling that the body belongs to the self) is commonly believed to arise through multisensory integration. This is famously shown in the rubber hand illusion (RHI), where touches applied synchronously to a false hand and to the participant’s real hand (which is hidden from view) can induce a sensation of ownership over the fake one. Asynchronous touches weaken the illusion, and are typically used as a control condition. Subjective experience during the illusion is measured using a questionnaire, with some statements designed to capture illusory sensation and others designed as controls. However, recent work by Lush (2020, Collabra: Psychology) claimed that participants may have different levels of expectation for questionnaire items in the synchronous condition compared to the asynchronous condition, and for the illusion-related items compared to the control items. This may mean that the classic RHI questionnaire is poorly controlled for demand characteristics. As such, Lush (2020) suggested that subjective reports in the RHI may reflect compliance or even the generation of experience to meet expectations (‘phenomenological control’), rather than multisensory processes underlying the sense of body ownership. In the current work a conceptual replication of Lush (2020) was performed with an improved experimental design. Participants were presented with a video of the RHI procedure and reported the sensations they would expect to experience, both in open questions and by rating questionnaire items. In keeping with Lush (2020), participants had greater expectations for illusion statements in the synchronous condition compared to the asynchronous condition, and for illusion statements compared to control statements. However, there was also evidence that some expectations may be driven by exposure to the questionnaire items rather than exposure to the illusion procedure. The role of pre-illusion expectations and expectations driven by questionnaire exposure in the RHI require further examination.

Subjective embodiment during the rubber hand illusion predicts severity of premonitory sensations and tics in Tourette Syndrome

10.31234/osf.io/yg6cm ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Charlotte Rae ◽

Dennis Larsson ◽

Jessica Eccles ◽

Jamie Ward ◽

HUgo Critchley

Keyword(s):

Tourette Syndrome ◽

Prediction Error ◽

Tactile Stimulation ◽

Self Control ◽

Rubber Hand Illusion ◽

Neural Pathways ◽

Rubber Hand ◽

Artificial Hand ◽

Error Index ◽

The rubber hand illusion describes a sense of embodiment over a fake hand induced by synchronous visuo-tactile stimulation. In Tourette Syndrome, the expression of involuntary tics and preceding premonitory sensations is associated with the perturbation of subjective feelings of self-control and agency. We compared responses to induction of the Rubber Hand Illusion in 23 adults with TS and 22 matched controls. Both TS and control participants reported equivalent subjective embodiment of the artificial hand: feelings of ownership, location, and agency were greater during synchronous visuo-tactile stimulation, compared to asynchronous stimulation. However, individuals with TS did not manifest greater proprioceptive drift during synchronous relative to asynchronous stimulation, an objective marker of embodiment observed in controls. We computed an ‘embodiment prediction error’ index from the difference between subjective embodiment and objective proprioceptive drift. This embodiment prediction error correlated with severity of premonitory sensations according to the Premonitory Urge for Tics Scale (PUTS). Feelings of ownership over the artificial hand also correlated with premonitory sensation severity, and feelings of agency with tic severity (YGTSS). Together our findings suggest that the subjective strength of bodily ownership, as measured by the rubber hand illusion, contributes to susceptibility to the premonitory sensations that are a precipitating factor in tics. These results also suggest that somatosensory neural pathways underpinning visuo-tactile integration are likely altered in TS and may interact with other sensory and motor systems to engender premonitory sensations and tics.

Multisensory integration underlying body-ownership experiences in schizophrenia and offspring of patients: a study using the rubber hand illusion paradigm

Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience ◽

10.1503/jpn.180049 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 44 (3) ◽

pp. 177-184 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Merel Prikken ◽

Anouk van der Weiden ◽

Heleen Baalbergen ◽

Manon H.J. Hillegers ◽

René S. Kahn ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Rubber Hand Illusion ◽

Body Ownership ◽

Rubber Hand

Demand characteristics confound the rubber hand illusion

10.31234/osf.io/mpncv ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Peter Lush

Keyword(s):

Rubber Hand Illusion ◽

Control Methods ◽

Rubber Hand ◽

Demand Characteristics ◽

Psychological Science ◽

Fit For Purpose ◽

Procedure Text ◽

And Control ◽

Video Demonstration ◽

Crucial Assumption

Reports of experiences of ownership over a fake hand following simple multisensory stimulation (the ‘rubber hand illusion’) have generated an expansive literature. Because such reports might reflect suggestion effects, demand characteristics are routinely controlled for by contrasting agreement ratings for ‘illusion’ and ‘control’ conditions. However, these methods have never been validated, and recent evidence that response to imaginative suggestion (‘phenomenological control’) predicts illusion report prompts reconsideration of their efficacy. A crucial assumption of the standard approach is that demand characteristics are matched across conditions. Here, a quasi-experiment design was employed to test demand characteristics in rubber hand illusion reports. Participants were provided with information about the rubber hand illusion procedure (text description and video demonstration) and recorded expectancies for standard ‘illusion’ and ‘control’ statements. Expectancies for control and illusion statements in synchronous and asynchronous conditions were found to differ similarly to published illusion reports. Therefore, rubber hand illusion control methods which have been in use for 22 years are not fit for purpose. Because demand characteristics have not been controlled in illusion report in existing studies, the illusion may be, partially or entirely, a suggestion effect. Methods to develop robust controls are proposed. That confounding demand characteristics have been overlooked for decades may be attributable to a lack of awareness that demand characteristics can drive experience in psychological science.

Proprioceptive drift is affected by the intermanual distance rather than the distance from the body’s midline in the rubber hand illusion

Attention Perception & Psychophysics ◽

10.3758/s13414-020-02119-7 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 82 (8) ◽

pp. 4084-4095

Author(s):

Roberto Erro ◽

Angela Marotta ◽

Mirta Fiorio

Keyword(s):

Sensory Information ◽

Peripersonal Space ◽

Rubber Hand Illusion ◽

Minor Role ◽

Rubber Hand ◽

Subjective Report ◽

A Minor ◽

Proprioceptive Drift ◽

Subsequent Integration

Abstract In the rubber hand illusion (RHI), simultaneous brush stroking of a subject’s hidden hand and a visible rubber hand induces a transient illusion of the latter to “feel like it’s my hand” and a proprioceptive drift of the hidden own hand toward the rubber hand. Recent accounts of the RHI have suggested that the illusion would only occur if weighting of conflicting sensory information and their subsequent integration results in a statistically plausible compromise. In three different experiments, we investigated the role of distance between the two hands as well as their proximity to the body’s midline in influencing the occurrence of the illusion. Overall, the results suggest that the illusion is abolished when placing the two hands apart, therefore increasing the mismatch between the visual and proprioceptive modality, whereas the proximity of the two hands to the body’s midline plays only a minor role on the subjective report of the illusion. This might be driven by the response properties of visuotactile bimodal cells encoding the peripersonal space around the hand.

Defensive activation during the rubber hand illusion: Ownership versus proprioceptive drift

Biological Psychology ◽

10.1016/j.biopsycho.2015.04.011 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 109 ◽

pp. 86-92 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Martin Riemer ◽

Florian Bublatzky ◽

Jörg Trojan ◽

Georg W. Alpers

Keyword(s):

Rubber Hand Illusion ◽

Rubber Hand ◽

The Emotional Glue of the Senses: Affective Certainty and Congruency in the Rubber Hand Illusion

10.1101/401422 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Maria Laura Filippetti ◽

Louise P. Kirsch ◽

Laura Crucianelli ◽

Aikaterini Fotopoulou

Keyword(s):

Sensory Stimulation ◽

Rubber Hand Illusion ◽

Body Ownership ◽

Top Down ◽

Rubber Hand ◽

Spatial Properties ◽

Affective Quality ◽

Temporal And Spatial

AbstractOur sense of body ownership relies on integrating different sensations according to their temporal and spatial congruency. Nevertheless, there is ongoing controversy about the role of affective congruency during multisensory integration, i.e. whether the stimuli to be perceived by the different sensory channels are congruent or incongruent in terms of their affective quality. In the present study, we applied a widely used multisensory integration paradigm, the Rubber Hand Illusion, to investigate the role of affective, top-down aspects of sensory congruency between visual and tactile modalities in the sense of body ownership. In Experiment 1 (N = 36), we touched participants with either soft or rough fabrics in their unseen hand, while they watched a rubber hand been touched synchronously with the same fabric or with a ‘hidden’ fabric of ‘uncertain roughness’. In Experiment 2 (N = 50), we used the same paradigm as in Experiment 1, but replaced the ‘uncertainty’ condition with an ‘incongruent’ one, in which participants saw the rubber hand being touched with a fabric of incongruent roughness and hence opposite valence. We found that certainty (Experiment 1) and congruency (Experiment 2) between the felt and vicariously perceived tactile affectivity led to higher subjective embodiment compared to uncertainty and incongruency, respectively, irrespective of any valence effect. Our results suggest that congruency in the affective top-down aspects of sensory stimulation is important to the multisensory integration process leading to embodiment, over and above temporal and spatial properties.

Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson’s disease changes perception in the Rubber Hand Illusion

10.1101/231340 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Catherine Ding ◽

Colin J Palmer ◽

Jakob Hohwy ◽

George J Youssef ◽

Bryan Paton ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Deep Brain Stimulation ◽

Brain Stimulation ◽

Rubber Hand Illusion ◽

Rubber Hand ◽

Bodily Awareness ◽

Tactile Cues ◽

Stn Dbs ◽

Deep Brain

ABSTRACTParkinson’s disease (PD) alters cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic circuitry and susceptibility to an illusion of bodily awareness, the Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI). Bodily awareness is thought to result from multisensory integration in a predominantly cortical network; the role of subcortical connections is unknown. We studied the effect of modulating cortico-subcortical circuitry on multisensory integration for bodily awareness in PD patients treated with subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) using the RHI experiment. Typically, synchronous visuo-tactile cues induce a false perception of touch on the rubber hand as if it were the subject’s hand, whereas asynchronous visuo-tactile cues do not. However, we found that in the asynchronous condition, patients in the off-stimulation state did not reject the RHI as strongly as healthy controls; switching on STN-DBS partially ‘normalised’ their responses. Patients in the off-stimulation state also misjudged the position of their hand, indicating it to be closer to the rubber hand than controls. However, STN-DBS did not affect proprioceptive judgements or subsequent arm movements altered by the perceptual effects of the illusion. Our findings support the idea that the STN and subcortical connections have a key role in multisensory integration for bodily awareness. Decisionmaking in multisensory bodily illusions is discussed.

Induced illusory body ownership in Borderline Personality Disorder

10.1101/628131 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Eli S. Neustadter ◽

Sarah K. Fineberg ◽

Jacob Leavitt ◽

Meagan M. Carr ◽

Philip R. Corlett

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Traits ◽

Predictive Coding ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Rubber Hand Illusion ◽

Body Ownership ◽

Rubber Hand ◽

Affective Symptoms ◽

AbstractBackgroundOne aspect of selfhood that may have relevance for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is variation in sense of body ownership. We employed the rubber hand illusion (RHI) to manipulate sense of body ownership in BPD. We extended previous research on illusory body ownership in BPD by testing: 1) two illusion conditions: asynchronous & synchronous stimulation, 2) relationship between Illusion experience and BPD symptoms, and 3) relationship between illusion experience and maladaptive personality traits.MethodsWe measured illusion strength (questionnaire responses), proprioceptive drift (perceived shift in physical hand position), BPD symptoms (DIB-R score), and maladaptive personality traits (PID-5) in 24 BPD and 21 control participants.ResultsFor subjective illusion strength, we found a main effect of group (BPD > HC, F = 11.94 p = 0.001), and condition (synchronous > asynchronous, F(1,43) = 22.80, p < 0.001). There was a group x condition interaction for proprioceptive drift (F(1,43) = 6.48, p = 0.015) such that people with BPD maintained illusion susceptibility in the asynchronous condition. Borderline symptom severity correlated with illusion strength within the BPD group, and this effect was specific to affective symptoms (r = 0.48, p < 0.01). Across all participants, trait psychoticism correlated with illusion strength (r = 0.44, p < 0.01).ConclusionPeople with BPD are more susceptible to illusory body ownership than controls. This is consistent with the clinical literature describing aberrant physical and emotional experience of self in BPD. A predictive-coding framework holds promise to develop testable mechanistic hypotheses for disrupted bodily self in BPD.HighlightsThe rubber hand illusion (RHI) allows measurement of self-disturbance.People with BPD had greater illusion susceptibility and this correlated with affective symptoms.Interoception stabilizes representations of body ownership, and is impaired in BPD.Illusion strength correlates with psychotic traits across levels of psychopathology.Predictive coding frameworks can probe mechanisms of impaired body ownership in psychopathology.