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. 2015 Mar 16;10(3):e0117155.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117155. eCollection 2015.

Are movements necessary for the sense of body ownership? Evidence from the rubber hand illusion in pure hemiplegic patients

Dalila Burin  1 , Alessandro Livelli  1 , Francesca Garbarini  1 , Carlotta Fossataro  1 , Alessia Folegatti  1 , Patrizia Gindri  2 , Lorenzo Pia  3
Affiliations

Are movements necessary for the sense of body ownership? Evidence from the rubber hand illusion in pure hemiplegic patients

Dalila Burin et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

A question still debated within cognitive neuroscience is whether signals present during actions significantly contribute to the emergence of human's body ownership. In the present study, we aimed at answer this question by means of a neuropsychological approach. We administered the classical rubber hand illusion paradigm to a group of healthy participants and to a group of neurological patients affected by a complete left upper limb hemiplegia, but without any propriceptive/tactile deficits. The illusion strength was measured both subjectively (i.e., by a self-report questionnaire) and behaviorally (i.e., the location of one's own hand is shifted towards the rubber hand). We aimed at examining whether, and to which extent, an enduring absence of movements related signals affects body ownership. Our results showed that patients displayed, respect to healthy participants, stronger illusory effects when the left (affected) hand was stimulated and no effects when the right (unaffected) hand was stimulated. In other words, hemiplegics had a weaker/more flexible sense of body ownership for the affected hand, but an enhanced/more rigid one for the healthy hand. Possible interpretations of such asymmetrical distribution of body ownership, as well as limits of our results, are discussed. Broadly speaking, our findings suggest that the alteration of the normal flow of signals present during movements impacts on human's body ownership. This in turn, means that movements have a role per se in developing and maintaining a coherent body ownership.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Picture of the materials employed in the experiment.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Picture of the experimental set-up.
Left hand stimulation (Fig. 1A) and right hand stimulation (Fig. 1B).
Fig 3
Fig 3. Graphic representation of the proprioceptive drift analysis on the two groups.
Error bars represent standard errors. Asterisks indicate significant comparisons (* p < 0.05** p < 0.01*** p < 0.005).
Fig 4
Fig 4. Graphic representation of subjective rating analysis on the two groups.
Error bars represent standard errors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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