Pulling the finger off disrupts agency, embodiment and peripersonal space

Roger Newport, Catherine Preston

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

For this experiment a visual illusion was created in which the participant's finger looked and felt as though it was being stretched to twice its normal length until it snapped and the tip came off. It was then stabbed with virtual weapons while skin conductance was measured. Sometimes the fingertip moved under the participant's own control and sometimes it moved independently. Curiously, detaching the tip of the finger destroyed the underlying ownership for the remaining stump as well as for the tip itself, even when the tip was under participants' control. These results have implications for theories of agency, embodiment, and tool-use.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1296-8
Number of pages3
JournalPerception
Volume39
Issue number9
Publication statusPublished - 2010

Keywords

  • Analysis of Variance
  • Fingers
  • Galvanic Skin Response
  • Humans
  • Illusions
  • Personal Space
  • Psychomotor Performance
  • Touch Perception
  • Visual Perception

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