scholarly journals Itch evoked by the rubber hand illusion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoinette van Laarhoven ◽  
Dieuwke S. Veldhuijzen ◽  
H. Chris Dijkerman
Keyword(s):  
Tactile Stimulation ◽  
Psychological Characteristics ◽  
Rubber Hand Illusion ◽  
Left Forearm ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Rubber Hand ◽  
Healthy Female ◽  
Low Levels

It has been well-established that expectancies can influence itch intensity. It remains to be established whether psychological processes can lead to non-itchy input being perceived as itchy. The current study aimed to investigate whether healthy individuals perceive non-itchy tactile stimulation (rubbing) as itchy when having the illusion that an itch stimulus is applied (using the rubber hand illusion; RHI). Moreover, it was investigated whether this effect depended on psychological characteristics, including expectancies. In 36 healthy female volunteers, ownership over the rubber arm was induced in a standard RHI setup. After assessing the itch-inducing properties of merely rubbing, baseline itch was evoked by rubbing cowhage spicules (pruritogenic tropical bean particles) onto the left forearm. Cowhage was kept on the arm for some minutes (follow-up phase). Similarly, cowhage was subsequently applied onto the rubber arm, while the participant’s concealed right arm was simultaneously rubbed without cowhage. Mean (mean=0.8, SD=1.1) and peak itch (mean=1.3, SD=1.4) significantly differed from zero (t=5.74, p<0.001 and t=6.89, p<0.001, respectively). Expectations did not mediate the effect, but self-reported attention to itch (PVAQ-itch) was positively associated with itch during follow-up. Low levels of itch were induced using the RHI paradigm, demonstrating the role of psychological factors in itch perception.

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

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 ◽  
Proprioceptive Drift

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.

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

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.

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

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Laura Filippetti ◽  
Louise P. Kirsch ◽  
Laura Crucianelli ◽  
Aikaterini Fotopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Multisensory Integration ◽  
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.

scholarly journals A common perceptual inference for cross-modally induced illusions of body schema

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zane Z. Zheng ◽  
Kevin G. Munhall ◽  
Ingrid S. Johnsrude
Keyword(s):  
Tactile Stimulation ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Rubber Hand Illusion ◽  
Similar Degree ◽  
Rubber Hand ◽  
Perceptual Inference ◽  
Vocal Production ◽  
Multimodal Representation

AbstractBody-schema, or the multimodal representation of one’s own body attributes, has been demonstrated previously to be malleable. In the rubber-hand illusion (Botvinick & Cohen, 1998), synchronous visual and tactile stimulation cause a fake hand to be perceived as one’s own. Similarly, if a stranger’s voice is heard synchronously with one’s own vocal production, that voice comes to be attributed to oneself (Zheng et al., 2011). Multimodal illusions like these involve distorting body schema based on correlated input, yet the degree to which different instances of distortion are perceived within the same individuals has never been examined. Here we show that participants embraced the ownership of a fake hand and a stranger’s voice to a similar degree, controlling both for individual suggestibility and for general susceptibility to illusion of body schema. Our findings suggest that the perceptual inference that leads to the distortion of body schema is a stable trait.

scholarly journals Rubber hands in space: the role of distance and relative position in the rubber hand illusion

2019 ◽  
Vol 237 (7) ◽  
pp. 1821-1832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Kalckert ◽  
A. Treshi-Marie Perera ◽  
Yosindra Ganesan ◽  
Erika Tan
Keyword(s):  
Relative Position ◽  
Rubber Hand Illusion ◽  
Rubber Hand

scholarly journals An Analogue Investigation into the Effect of Trauma-related Rumination on Trauma Intrusions and the Moderating Role of Trait Rumination and Depression

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rie Kubota ◽  
Reginald D. V. Nixon
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Experimental Session ◽  
Stress Symptoms ◽  
Healthy Female ◽  
Analogue Trauma ◽  
Experimental Findings ◽  
Moderating Role

Trauma-related rumination is considered one cognitive process that underlies the maintenance of posttraumatic stress. However experimental findings for the effect of trauma-related rumination have been inconclusive and a moderating role of trait rumination has been speculated. Further, existing depression may also interact with trauma-related rumination to increase posttraumatic stress symptoms. The roles of trauma-related rumination, trait rumination and existing depression were therefore investigated. Healthy female participants watched an analogue trauma film and completed either film-related rumination or control inductions involving a distraction and free-thinking task in the first and second experiments, respectively. Participants' frequency of film-related intrusions and associated distress levels were assessed within the initial experimental session, over 1-week after the film and at 1-week follow-up. Induced rumination resulted in greater intrusion-related distress in the second experiment. However no consistent moderations of trait rumination and existing depression were found. Theoretical and clinical implications of findings are discussed.

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

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.

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