Cited by 953Virtual Reality Applications and ImpactsMultisensory perception and integrationTactile and Sensory Interactions

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 53 of the 54 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 57 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

If I Were You: Perceptual Illusion of Body Swapping

Open access

Abstract

The concept of an individual swapping his or her body with that of another person has captured the imagination of writers and artists for decades. Although this topic has not been the subject of investigation in science, it exemplifies the fundamental question of why we have an ongoing experience of being located inside our bodies. Here we report a perceptual illusion of body-swapping that addresses directly this issue. Manipulation of the visual perspective, in combination with the receipt of correlated multisensory information from the body was sufficient to trigger the illusion that another person's body or an artificial body was one's own. This effect was so strong that people could experience being in another person's body when facing their own body and shaking hands with it. Our results are of fundamental importance because they identify the perceptual processes that produce the feeling of ownership of one's body.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

Synchronous visuo-tactile stimulation from a first-person perspective can make healthy volunteers experience a mannequin’s body, or another person’s body, as their own. The illusion is strong enough that participants can face their own body and shake hands with it while feeling located in the other body.

Key findings

  • In Experiment 1, synchronous stroking of a mannequin’s abdomen produced questionnaire evidence of whole-body ownership; illusion statements differed significantly between synchronous and asynchronous conditions (p = .000, F(1, 95) = 107.508), while asynchronous controls showed no such illusory perceptions (p = .703, F(1, 223) = 1.513).
  • Threat-evoked skin conductance responses (SCRs) provided physiological evidence: threatening the mannequin with a knife in the synchronous condition elicited greater SCR than control conditions (N = 10, p = .009, Z = −2.599; p = .028, Z = −2.191), and ownership generalised from stimulated hands or abdomen to the whole body (N = 13, p = .011, Z = −2.511 and p = .033, Z = −2.132).
  • Only human-like bodies were owned: SCR was stronger when the mannequin was threatened in the synchronous condition than when a same-sized rectangular object was threatened after synchronous stimulation (N = 12, p = .008); synchronous vs asynchronous stimulation mattered for the mannequin (p = .04) but not for the rectangular object (p = .819).
  • In Experiment 5, participants facing their own body while shaking hands with the experimenter experienced the experimenter’s body as their own; SCR was greater when the experimenter’s wrist was threatened than when the participant’s own hand was threatened in the synchronous condition (N = 20, p = .0002, Z = −3.099), with no such difference in the asynchronous condition (p = .737) and a significant Hand × Condition interaction (p = .001, F(1, 19) = 17.083). Gender and body-shape differences were not significant (Experiment 1: N = 32, p = .613, F(1, 223) = .257; pooled SCR: p = .952, F = .004).

Methods

  • Five experiments used separate groups of naïve healthy volunteers: Experiment 1, N = 32 (16 females, mean age 25 ± 6 years); Experiment 2, N = 10 (2 females, 25 ± 4); Experiment 3, N = 13 (8 females, 27 ± 6.5); Experiment 4, N = 12 (4 females, 29 ± 6); Experiment 5, N = 20 (13 females, 27 ± 6.5). The studies were approved by the local Ethical Committee of Karolinska Institute.
  • Participants wore head-mounted displays connected to CCTV cameras mounted on a mannequin or the experimenter’s head to provide a first-person visual perspective. Experiments compared synchronous versus asynchronous visuo-tactile stimulation (stroking the abdomen or hands, or hand squeezing) and measured threat-evoked SCRs using a Biopac MP150 system with electrodes on the left index and middle fingers.
  • Questionnaire ratings used a seven-point Likert scale. SCR was analysed as the peak conductance change up to 5 seconds after threat onset. Parametric tests were used for Experiments 1 and 4 (which passed normality testing), and non-parametric tests for the other experiments; alpha was set at 5%.

Limitations

  • Stated limitations: Not stated in the paper.
  • Evident from the text: sample sizes were small and each experiment used a separate group of healthy young adults (N = 10–32), so generalisability to clinical, older, or other populations is untested; the gender comparison pooled data from Experiments 3 and 4 to obtain sufficient males and females.
  • Evident from the text: in Experiment 5, the asynchronous control did not fully abolish the illusion—several participants reported a weaker illusion, and the first-person perspective still influenced them—which the authors note likely explains the lack of SCR difference between hands in the asynchronous condition.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1371/journal.pone.0003832

Cites

53 of 53 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

0 of 57 cited sources checked · 0 supported · 0 flagged

Show all 71 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 19
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 12
30 of 30
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The questionnaire statements S1–S3 validly capture the illusory experience of being the artificial body, and S4–S7 validly control for suggestibility and task-compliance.

    “Three statements were designed to capture the illusory experience of being the artificial body, and the other four served as controls for suggestibility and task-compliance (Figure 2).”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Earlier work on body ownership has exclusively studied a single limb, the arm, using the traditional rubber hand illusion.

    “Earlier work on body ownership has exclusively studied a single limb, the arm, using the traditional rubber hand illusion.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Until now, it was not known whether the principles underlying changes in ownership would generalise to other body parts, or to an entire body.

    “Thus, until now, it was not known whether the principles underlying changes in ownership would generalise to other body parts, or to an entire body.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The body typically produces certain patterns of sensory signals from the different modalities.

    “the fact that the body typically produces certain patterns of sensory signals from the different modalities.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The sensory experience of one's own body from the first person perspective is different from recognising oneself in mirrors, TV screens or other image representations as observed from a third person perspective.

    “The sensory experience of one's own body from the first person perspective is different from recognising oneself in mirrors, TV screens or other image representations as observed from a third person perspective.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    When we recognise ourselves in a mirror, we do not have the experience that we are actually in the mirror, or that there has been a change in ownership of our body.

    “When we recognise ourselves in a mirror, for example, we do not have the experience that we are actually in the mirror, or that there has been a change in ownership of our body.”
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Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Statistics recomputed

Every reported test result, recomputed from its test statistic and degrees of freedom. A result shows as not adding up only once an independent check has confirmed it.

  • Not confirmedz = -2.599reported p = .028 · recomputed p = .009

    “Z = −2.599, p = .028”

1 of 1

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • Experiment 5 gives conflicting p-values for synchronous versus asynchronous conditions

    Major

    The Results report p = 0.037 for threatening the experimenter's hand in the synchronous versus asynchronous condition. Figure 7 reports p = 0.002 for that comparison.

  • Experiment 5 gives conflicting p-values for comparing the two hands

    Minor

    The Results report p = .0002 when comparing threats to the experimenter's and participant's hands in the synchronous condition. Figure 7 reports p = .037 for that same comparison.

  • Figure 3 names a different statistical test from the Results

    Minor

    The Results identify the Experiment 2 comparisons as Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests, whereas the Figure 3 caption calls them t-tests.

  • Methods rule out parametric tests for Experiment 5, but Results use ANOVA

    Minor

    The Methods say that only Experiments 1 and 4 used parametric tests and that the other three used non-parametric tests. The Experiment 5 Results nevertheless report a repeated-measures ANOVA.

4 of 4

Citations

Cites

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Show all 54 references

1 of the 54 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. M Minsky, 1980, Telepresence., Omni, 45

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Metadata

Authors
Petkova, V. I., & Ehrsson, H. H.
Affiliations
Karolinska Institutet (SE)
Corresponding author
Petkova, Valeria I.
Venue
PLoS ONE
Published
2008-12-03
Volume
3
Issue
12
Pages
e3832
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2170100837
Cited by
953
References
54
Citations by year
2026: 59 · 2025: 54 · 2024: 52 · 2023: 56 · 2022: 71 · 2021: 90 · 2020: 85 · 2019: 67 · 2018: 65 · 2017: 47 · 2016: 61 · 2015: 46 · 2014: 54 · 2013: 49 · 2012: 30
FWCI
54.56
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • European Commission
  • Stiftelsen för Strategisk Forskning
  • National Institutes of Health
  • Medical Research Council
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
Keywords
body ownership, multisensory integration, visual perspective, self-localization, artificial bodies, perceptual illusions
MeSH terms
Analysis of Variance, Body Image, Discrimination, Psychological, Female, Gender Identity, Humans, Illusions, Male, Perceptual Distortion, Photic Stimulation, Space Perception, Touch, Visual Perception, Human Body

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