Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Examining the effect of body ownership in immersive virtual and augmented reality environments

  • Original Article
  • Published:
The Visual Computer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The traditional rubber hand illusion is a psychological experiment where participants are under the illusion that a rubber hand is part of their own body. This paper examines the use of real, virtual and augmented reality environments for identifying the elements that influence body ownership in healthy participants. Compared to the classical experiment where a plastic rubber hand was used, a realistic 3D representation was chosen to create the same illusion this time in both immersive virtual reality and augmented reality. Experiments were performed on 30 volunteers undergoing testing session composed of three stages. Participants were asked to complete two different questionnaires, one measuring their cognitive workload and another one regarding their experience with the rubber hand illusion. In addition, EEG signals of the individuals were recorded, resulting in 90 electroencephalogram datasets. Results indicate correlations between ownership statements with beta and gamma electroencephalogram bands in premotor cortex activity. Link between higher gamma production in ventral premotor area during the illusion was established in previous studies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Artoolkit. http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/. Accessed 11 Dec 2015 (2015)

  2. Create and connect with unity 5. http://unity3d.com. Accessed 11 Dec 2015 (2015)

  3. Fortus 250mc. http://www.stratasys.com/3d-printers/design-series/fortus-250mc. Accessed 11 Dec 2015 (2015)

  4. Mara plug-in for eeglab. http://www.user.tu-berlin.de/irene.winkler/artifacts/. Accessed 11 Dec 2015 (2015)

  5. Mirror: medical imaging software. http://www.canfieldsci.com/imaging-systems/mirror/. Accessed 11 Dec 2015 (2015)

  6. Products/enobio/enobio 32-neuroelectrics. http://www.neuroelectrics.com/products/enobio/enobio-32/. Accessed 11 Dec 2015 (2015)

  7. The wrap 1200dxar—the ultimate digital ar eyewear solution. https://www.vuzix.com/augmented-reality/products_wrap1200dxar/. Accessed 30 Nov 2015 (2015)

  8. Baillet, S., Mosher, J.C., Leahy, R.M.: Electromagnetic brain mapping. IEEE Signal Process. Mag. 18(6), 14–30 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Başar-Eroglu, C., Strüber, D., Schürmann, M., Stadler, M., Başar, E.: Gamma-band responses in the brain: a short review of psychophysiological correlates and functional significance. Int. J. Psychophysiol. 24(1), 101–112 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Botvinick, M., Cohen, J., et al.: Rubber hands’ feel’touch that eyes see. Nature 391(6669), 756–756 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Brovelli, A., Lachaux, J.P., Kahane, P., Boussaoud, D.: High gamma frequency oscillatory activity dissociates attention from intention in the human premotor cortex. Neuroimage 28(1), 154–164 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Costantini, M., Haggard, P.: The rubber hand illusion: sensitivity and reference frame for body ownership. Conscious. Cognit. 16(2), 229–240 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Delorme, A., Makeig, S.: Eeglab: an open source toolbox for analysis of single-trial eeg dynamics including independent component analysis. J. Neurosci. Methods 134(1), 9–21 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Ehrsson, H.H.: The experimental induction of out-of-body experiences. Science 317(5841), 1048–1048 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Ehrsson, H.H., Holmes, N.P., Passingham, R.E.: Touching a rubber hand: feeling of body ownership is associated with activity in multisensory brain areas. J. Neurosci. 25(45), 10564–10573 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Ehrsson, H.H., Spence, C., Passingham, R.E.: That’s my hand! activity in premotor cortex reflects feeling of ownership of a limb. Science 305(5685), 875–877 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Fernández, T., Harmony, T., Rodríguez, M., Bernal, J., Silva, J., Reyes, A., Marosi, E.: EEG activation patterns during the performance of tasks involving different components of mental calculation. Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol. 94(3), 175–182 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Fitzgibbon, S.P., Pope, K.J., Mackenzie, L., Clark, C.R., Willoughby, J.O.: Cognitive tasks augment gamma EEG power. Clin. Neurophysiol. 115(8), 1802–1809 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Gallagher, S.: Body image and body schema: a conceptual clarification. J. Mind Behav. 7(4), 5417,554 (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Graimann, B., Allison, B.Z., Pfurtscheller, G.: Brain–Computer Interfaces: Revolutionizing Human–Computer Interaction. Springer Science & Business Media, Berlin (2010)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  21. Gray, C.M.: The temporal correlation hypothesis of visual feature integration: still alive and well. Neuron 24(1), 31–47 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Hart, S.G.: Nasa-task load index (nasa-tlx); 20 years later. In: Proceedings of the human factors and ergonomics society annual meeting, vol. 50, Sage Publications, pp. 904–908 (2006)

  23. IJsselsteijn, W., de Kort, Y., Haans, A., et al.: Is this my hand i see before me? the rubber hand illusion in reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality. Presence 15(4), 455–464 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Kalckert, A., Ehrsson, H.H.: Moving a rubber hand that feels like your own: a dissociation of ownership and agency. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 6(40), 1–14 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Kalckert, A., Ehrsson, H.H.: The moving rubber hand illusion revisited: comparing movements and visuotactile stimulation to induce illusory ownership. Conscious. Cognit. 26, 117–132 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Kammers, M., Van der Ham, I., Dijkerman, H.: Dissociating body representations in healthy individuals: differential effects of a kinaesthetic illusion on perception and action. Neuropsychologia 44(12), 2430–2436 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Kilteni, K., Maselli, A., Kording, K.P., Slater, M.: Over my fake body: body ownership illusions for studying the multisensory basis of own-body perception. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 9, 1–20 (2015)

  28. Lenggenhager, B., Tadi, T., Metzinger, T., Blanke, O.: Video ergo sum: manipulating bodily self-consciousness. Science 317(5841), 1096–1099 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Maravita, A., Spence, C., Driver, J.: Multisensory integration and the body schema: close to hand and within reach. Curr. Biol. 13(13), R531–R539 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Martin, J.H.: The collective electrical behavior of cortical neurons: the electroencephalogram and the mechanisms of epilepsy. Princ. Neural Sci. 3, 777–791 (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Merleau-Ponty, M.: Phenomenology of Perception (1962)

  32. Petkova, V.I., Ehrsson, H.H.: If i were you: perceptual illusion of body swapping. PLoS ONE 3(12), e3832 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Pfurtscheller, G., Neuper, C.: Motor imagery and direct brain-computer communication. Proc. IEEE 89(7), 1123–1134 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Pulvermüller, F., Birbaumer, N., Lutzenberger, W., Mohr, B.: High-frequency brain activity: its possible role in attention, perception and language processing. Prog. Neurobiol. 52(5), 427–445 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Ramachandran, V.S., Rogers-Ramachandran, D.: Synaesthesia in phantom limbs induced with mirrors. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 263(1369), 377–386 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Ray, W.J., Cole, H.W.: Eeg alpha activity reflects attentional demands, and beta activity reflects emotional and cognitive processes. Science 228(4700), 750–752 (1985)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Ron-Angevin, R., Díaz-Estrella, A.: Brain-computer interface: changes in performance using virtual reality techniques. Neurosci. Lett. 449(2), 123–127 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Sanei, S., Chambers, J.A.: EEG Signal Processing. Wiley, New York (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Slater, M., Spanlang, B., Sanchez-Vives, M.V., Blanke, O., et al.: First person experience of body transfer in virtual reality. PLoS ONE 5(5), e10564 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Sollfrank, T., Hart, D., Goodsell, R., Foster, J., Tan, T.: 3d visualization of movements can amplify motor cortex activation during subsequent motor imagery. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 9, 1–9 (2015)

  41. Suzuki, K., Garfinkel, S.N., Critchley, H.D., Seth, A.K.: Multisensory integration across exteroceptive and interoceptive domains modulates self-experience in the rubber-hand illusion. Neuropsychologia 51(13), 2909–2917 (2013)

  42. Tan, D.: Brain–computer interfaces: applying our minds to human–computer interaction. Informal proceedings what is the next generation of human-computer interaction? In: Workshop at CHI 2006 (2006)

  43. Tsakiris, M., Haggard, P.: The rubber hand illusion revisited: visuotactile integration and self-attribution. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 31(1), 80 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Zhang, J., Ma, K., Hommel, B.: The virtual hand illusion is moderated by context-induced spatial reference frames. Front. Psychol. 6, 1–9 (2015)

  45. Zhang, Y., Chen, Y., Bressler, S.L., Ding, M.: Response preparation and inhibition: the role of the cortical sensorimotor beta rhythm. Neuroscience 156(1), 238–246 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Helena Lukášová for providing her hand as a model and for artwork done on its printed version, and Igor Chalás for his work on the 3D visualization of the hand. Also thanks to Szymon Fiałek for valuable contributions to the experimental design and Dr. Jiří Chmelík for helping with the preparations of the experiment.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. HCI Lab, Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

    Filip Škola & Fotis Liarokapis

Authors
  1. Filip Škola
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Fotis Liarokapis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Filip Škola.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Škola, F., Liarokapis, F. Examining the effect of body ownership in immersive virtual and augmented reality environments. Vis Comput 32, 761–770 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-016-1246-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-016-1246-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation