May 2010 | Volume 5 | Issue 5 | e10564 | Mel Slater, Bernhard Spanlang, Maria V. Sanchez-Vives, Olaf Blanke
This study explores the phenomenon of body ownership in virtual reality (VR) by inducing a body transfer illusion using a first-person perspective of a life-sized virtual human female body. The researchers manipulated three independent binary factors: perspective position (first or third person), visuotactile synchronization, and the synchrony or asynchrony between felt and seen touch. The results, both subjectively through questionnaires and physiologically through heart rate deceleration, showed that the first-person perspective was the most significant factor in generating the illusion of body ownership. This finding challenges previous studies that emphasized the importance of visuotactile synchronization. The study highlights the potential of immersive VR as a powerful tool for understanding body representation and experience, as it allows for experimental manipulations that would otherwise be infeasible. The results also suggest that bottom-up perceptual mechanisms can temporarily override top-down knowledge, leading to a radical illusion of body ownership.This study explores the phenomenon of body ownership in virtual reality (VR) by inducing a body transfer illusion using a first-person perspective of a life-sized virtual human female body. The researchers manipulated three independent binary factors: perspective position (first or third person), visuotactile synchronization, and the synchrony or asynchrony between felt and seen touch. The results, both subjectively through questionnaires and physiologically through heart rate deceleration, showed that the first-person perspective was the most significant factor in generating the illusion of body ownership. This finding challenges previous studies that emphasized the importance of visuotactile synchronization. The study highlights the potential of immersive VR as a powerful tool for understanding body representation and experience, as it allows for experimental manipulations that would otherwise be infeasible. The results also suggest that bottom-up perceptual mechanisms can temporarily override top-down knowledge, leading to a radical illusion of body ownership.