scholarly journals 'Embreathment' illusion reveals hierarchical influence of respiratory, visual and spatial signals on corporeal awareness

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Monti ◽  
Giuseppina Porciello ◽  
Gaetano Tieri ◽  
Salvatore Maria Aglioti
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Physiological Signals ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Visual Appearance ◽  
Body Location ◽  
Specific Position ◽  
Embodied Agent ◽  
Bodily Illusion ◽  
Corporeal Awareness

Recent theories posit that physiological signals contribute to corporeal awareness – the basic feeling that one has a body (body ownership) which acts according to one’s will (body agency) and occupies a specific position (body location). However, these signals are notoriously difficult to manipulate. Using immersive virtual reality, we found that an ecological mapping of real respiratory patterns onto a virtual body led to illusory changes of corporeal awareness. This new bodily illusion, called ‘embreathment’, revealed that breathing uniquely influences corporeal awareness over and above other bodily cues. In particular, breathing turned out to be almost as important as visual appearance for inducing body ownership, and more important than any other cue for body agency. By showing that respiratory, visual and spatial signals exert an interoception-mediated, specific, and weighted influence on the fundamental feeling that one is an embodied agent, we pave the way for a comprehensive hierarchical model of corporeal awareness.

scholarly journals The “embreathment” illusion highlights the role of breathing in corporeal awareness

2020 ◽  
Vol 123 (1) ◽  
pp. 420-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Monti ◽  
Giuseppina Porciello ◽  
Gaetano Tieri ◽  
Salvatore M. Aglioti
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Visual Appearance ◽  
Body Location ◽  
Specific Position ◽  
Embodied Agent ◽  
Corporeal Awareness ◽  
Virtual Body

Recent theories posit that physiological signals contribute to corporeal awareness, the basic feeling that one has a body (body ownership) that acts according to one’s will (body agency) and occupies a specific position (body location). Combining physiological recordings with immersive virtual reality, we found that an ecological mapping of real respiratory patterns onto a virtual body illusorily changes corporeal awareness. This new way of inducing a respiratory bodily illusion, called “embreathment,” revealed that breathing is almost as important as visual appearance for inducing body ownership and more important than any other cue for body agency. These effects were moderated by individual levels of interoception, as assessed through a standard heartbeat-counting task and a new “pneumoception” task. By showing that respiratory, visual, and spatial signals exert a specific and weighted influence on the fundamental feeling that one is an embodied agent, we pave the way for a comprehensive hierarchical model of corporeal awareness. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Our body is the only object we sense from the inside; however, it is unclear how much inner physiology contributes to the global sensation of having a body and controlling it. We combine respiration recordings with immersive virtual reality and find that making a virtual body breathe like the real body gives an illusory sense of ownership and agency over the avatar, elucidating the role of a key physiological process like breathing in corporeal awareness.

scholarly journals The Bodily Illusion in Adverse Conditions: Virtual Arm Ownership During Visuomotor Mismatch

Perception ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 477-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Caola ◽  
Martina Montalti ◽  
Alessandro Zanini ◽  
Antony Leadbetter ◽  
Matteo Martini
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Arm Movements ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Adverse Conditions ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
First Person Perspective ◽  
Subjective Reports ◽  
Bodily Illusion

Classically, body ownership illusions are triggered by cross-modal synchronous stimulations, and hampered by multisensory inconsistencies. Nonetheless, the boundaries of such illusions have been proven to be highly plastic. In this immersive virtual reality study, we explored whether it is possible to induce a sense of body ownership over a virtual body part during visuomotor inconsistencies, with or without the aid of concomitant visuo-tactile stimulations. From a first-person perspective, participants watched a virtual tube moving or an avatar’s arm moving, with or without concomitant synchronous visuo-tactile stimulations on their hand. Three different virtual arm/tube speeds were also investigated, while all participants kept their real arms still. The subjective reports show that synchronous visuo-tactile stimulations effectively counteract the effect of visuomotor inconsistencies, but at slow arm movements, a feeling of body ownership might be successfully induced even without concomitant multisensory correspondences. Possible therapeutical implications of these findings are discussed.

Visual appearance of a virtual upper limb modulates the temperature of the real hand: a thermal imaging study in Immersive Virtual Reality

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (9) ◽  
pp. 1141-1151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaetano Tieri ◽  
Annamaria Gioia ◽  
Michele Scandola ◽  
Enea F. Pavone ◽  
Salvatore M. Aglioti
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Upper Limb ◽  
Thermal Imaging ◽  
Imaging Study ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Visual Appearance ◽  
The Real ◽  
Real Hand

scholarly journals The Sense of Embodiment in Virtual Reality

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantina Kilteni ◽  
Raphaela Groten ◽  
Mel Slater
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Immersive Virtual Environment ◽  
Working Definition ◽  
Experimental Approaches ◽  
Continuous Presence ◽  
Conceptual Confusion

What does it feel like to own, to control, and to be inside a body? The multidimensional nature of this experience together with the continuous presence of one's biological body, render both theoretical and experimental approaches problematic. Nevertheless, exploitation of immersive virtual reality has allowed a reframing of this question to whether it is possible to experience the same sensations towards a virtual body inside an immersive virtual environment as toward the biological body, and if so, to what extent. The current paper addresses these issues by referring to the Sense of Embodiment (SoE). Due to the conceptual confusion around this sense, we provide a working definition which states that SoE consists of three subcomponents: the sense of self-location, the sense of agency, and the sense of body ownership. Under this proposed structure, measures and experimental manipulations reported in the literature are reviewed and related challenges are outlined. Finally, future experimental studies are proposed to overcome those challenges, toward deepening the concept of SoE and enhancing it in virtual applications.

Harm, Consent, and Virtual Selves in Full-Body Ownership Illusions: Real Concerns for Immersive Virtual Reality Therapies

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 585-591
Author(s):  
MARIA BOTERO ◽  
ELISE WHATLEY
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Domestic Abuse ◽  
Violent Offenders ◽  
Innovative Technology ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Ethical Research ◽  
Harmful Effects ◽  
Full Body ◽  
Virtual Body

AbstractThis paper analyzes in the use of virtual reality when used to induce full-body ownership in violent offenders in order to elicit empathetic feelings by allowing them to embody the virtual body of a victim of domestic abuse. The authors explore potentially harmful effects to individuals participating in this kind of therapy and question whether consent is fully informed. The paper concludes with guidelines for ethical research and rehabilitation using this innovative technology.

scholarly journals The role of vision and proprioception in self-motion encoding: An immersive virtual reality study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rena Bayramova ◽  
Irene Valori ◽  
Phoebe E. McKenna-Plumley ◽  
Claudio Zandonella Callegher ◽  
Teresa Farroni
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Proprioceptive Information ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Starting Position ◽  
Body Location ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Multisensory Input

AbstractPast research on the advantages of multisensory input for remembering spatial information has mainly focused on memory for objects or surrounding environments. Less is known about the role of cue combination in memory for own body location in space. In a previous study, we investigated participants’ accuracy in reproducing a rotation angle in a self-rotation task. Here, we focus on the memory aspect of the task. Participants had to rotate themselves back to a specified starting position in three different sensory conditions: a blind condition, a condition with disrupted proprioception, and a condition where both vision and proprioception were reliably available. To investigate the difference between encoding and storage phases of remembering proprioceptive information, rotation amplitude and recall delay were manipulated. The task was completed in a real testing room and in immersive virtual reality (IVR) simulations of the same environment. We found that proprioceptive accuracy is lower when vision is not available and that performance is generally less accurate in IVR. In reality conditions, the degree of rotation affected accuracy only in the blind condition, whereas in IVR, it caused more errors in both the blind condition and to a lesser degree when proprioception was disrupted. These results indicate an improvement in encoding own body location when vision and proprioception are optimally integrated. No reliable effect of delay was found.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document