2007/08/23 by Bigna Lenggenhager, Tej Tadi, Thomas Metzinger +1 · 2 citations
Computer Science · Psychology · Neuroscience · #Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts #Action Observation and Synchronization #Visual perception and processing mechanisms #Consciousness #Self-consciousness #Psychology #Virtual reality #Cognitive psychology #Somatosensory system #Self #Cognition #Cognitive science #Computer science #Neuroscience #Social psychology #Human–computer interaction
paper · doi:10.1126/science.1143439
openalex publication_date 2007/08/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
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.