Video Ergo Sum: Manipulating Bodily Self-Consciousness

TitleVideo Ergo Sum: Manipulating Bodily Self-Consciousness
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2007
AuthorsLenggenhager, B, Tadi T, Metzinger T, Blanke O
JournalScience
Volume317
Issue5841
Pagination1096 - 1099
Date Published08/2007
ISSN1095-9203
KeywordsSelf
Abstract

Humans normally experience the conscious self as localized within their bodily borders. This spatial unity may break down in certain neurological conditions such as out-of-body experiences, leading to a striking disturbance of bodily self-consciousness. On the basis of these clinical data, we designed an experiment that uses conflicting visual-somatosensory input in virtual reality to disrupt the spatial unity between the self and the body. We found that during multisensory conflict, participants felt as if a virtual body seen in front of them was their own body and mislocalized themselves toward the virtual body, to a position outside their bodily borders. Our results indicate that spatial unity and bodily self-consciousness can be studied experimentally and are based on multisensory and cognitive processing of bodily information.

DOI10.1126/science.1143439
Short TitleScience
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