New publication in Psychological Science by Blanke laboratory
© 2013 EPFL
Turning Body and Self Inside Out. Visualized Heartbeats Alter Bodily Self-Consciousness and Tactile Perception.
By J.E. Aspell, L. Heydrich, G. Marillier, T. Lavanchy,B. Herbelin, and O. Blanke.
Prominent theories highlight the importance of bodily perception for self-consciousness, but it is currently not known whether bodily perception is based on interoceptive or exteroceptive signals or on integrated signals from these anatomically distinct systems. In the research reported here, we combined both types of signals by surreptitiously providing participants with visual exteroceptive information about their heartbeat: A real-time video image of a periodically illuminated silhouette outlined participants’ (projected, “virtual”) bodies and flashed in synchrony with their heartbeats.