Will we ever be able to truly feel like we鈥檙e inhabiting a virtual world? A virtual reality twist on the classic rubber hand illusion suggests we can 鈥� and all it takes is a bit of magnetic brain stimulation.
Around 20 years ago, psychologists in Pennsylvania discovered that they could convince people that a rubber hand was their own. They placed it on a table in front of a volunteer, and stroked it while simultaneously also stroking the person鈥檚 actual hand. The experiment inspired further 鈥�bodily illusion鈥� experiments that mess with our sense of self in strange ways, giving us the feeling of 鈥渆mbodiment鈥� 鈥� ownership of a body part that is not really one鈥檚 own.
Now these illusions are going high-tech, and neuroscientists have managed to create embodiment using non-invasive brain stimulation, without actually touching a volunteer. 鈥淲e wanted to know how much these illusions were based on the fact that you have to stimulate the body,鈥� says , at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
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Virtual embodiment
Rather than stimulate a person鈥檚 hand by touching it, Bassolino and her colleagues used transcranial magnetic stimulation instead. Using a magnetic coil, they zapped magnetic pulses at each volunteer鈥檚 motor cortex 鈥� the part of the brain responsible for body movements. They did this while each volunteer was wearing a virtual reality headset, and zapped each person so that their hands twitched in time with the virtual hands they were watching.
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Out of the 32 volunteers, 80 per cent said they鈥檇 felt like the virtual hand was their own during two minutes of stimulation. This is the first time such an illusion has been achieved using noninvasive brain stimulation.
The team hope that their research may lead to new ways of treating people who have had strokes that have made them unable to recognise certain limbs as their own.
鈥淭hey blurred the lines between what鈥檚 virtual and what鈥檚 human,鈥� says , at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio. Because our brains don鈥檛 seem to distinguish between real and artificial inputs, we could theoretically completely embody a virtual avatar, he says. 鈥淏ut as of right now, we鈥檙e just opening the door to this world.鈥�
European Journal of Neuroscience
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