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Turning body and self inside out: visualized heartbeats alter bodily self-consciousness and tactile perception
journal contribution
posted on 2023-08-30, 13:59 authored by Jane E. Aspell, Lukas Heydrich, Guillaume Marillier, Tom Lavanchy, Bruno Herbelin, Olaf BlankeProminent theories highlight the importance of bodily perception for self-consciousness, but it is currently not known whether bodily perception is based on interoceptive or exteroceptive signals or on integrated signals from these anatomically distinct systems. In the research reported here, we combined both types of signals by surreptitiously providing participants with visual exteroceptive information about their heartbeat: A real-time video image of a periodically illuminated silhouette outlined participants' (projected, "virtual") bodies and flashed in synchrony with their heartbeats. We investigated whether these "cardio-visual" signals could modulate bodily self-consciousness and tactile perception. We report two main findings. First, synchronous cardio-visual signals increased self-identification with and self-location toward the virtual body, and second, they altered the perception of tactile stimuli applied to participants' backs so that touch was mislocalized toward the virtual body. We argue that the integration of signals from the inside and the outside of the human body is a fundamental neurobiological process underlying self-consciousness.
History
Refereed
- Yes
Volume
24Issue number
12Page range
2445-2453Publication title
Psychological ScienceISSN
1467-9280External DOI
Publisher
SAGEFile version
- Accepted version
Language
- eng
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Legacy posted date
2014-05-20Legacy creation date
2021-04-22Legacy Faculty/School/Department
ARCHIVED Faculty of Science & Technology (until September 2018)Usage metrics
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