Touching with the eyes: Oculomotor self-touch induces illusory body ownership

Cataldo, Antonio; Di Luca, Massimiliano; Deroy, Ophelia ; Hayward, Vincent (2023): Touching with the eyes: Oculomotor self-touch induces illusory body ownership. iScience. ISSN 2589-0042

Abstract

Self-touch plays a central role in the construction and plasticity of the bodily self. But which mechanisms support this role? Previous accounts emphasize the convergence of proprioceptive and tactile signals from the touching and the touched body parts. Here, we hypothesise that proprioceptive information is not necessary for self-touch modulation of body-ownership. Because eye move- ments do not rely on proprioceptive signals as limb movements do, we developed a novel oculomotor self-touch paradigm where voluntary eye movements gener- ated corresponding tactile sensations. We then compared the effectiveness of eye versus hand self-touch movements in generating an illusion of owning a rub- ber hand. Voluntary oculomotor self-touch was as effective as hand-driven self- touch, suggesting that proprioception does not contribute to body ownership during self-touch. Self-touch may contribute to a unified sense of bodily self by binding voluntary actions toward our own body with their tactile consequences.

• Doc-Type: Article (LMU)
• Organisational unit (Faculties): 10 Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Science > Research Center for Neurophilosophy and Ethics of Neurosciences
• DFG subject classification of scientific disciplines: Humanities and social sciences
• DFG: Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) - 491502892