title: Proprioceptive drift in the rubber hand illusion is intensified following 1 Hz TMS of the left EBA.
abstract: The rubber hand illusion (RHI) is a paradigm used to induce an illusory feeling of owning a dummy hand through congruent multisensory stimulation. Thus, it can grant insights into how our brain represents our body as our own. Recent research has demonstrated an involvement of the extrastriate body area (EBA), an area of the brain that is typically implicated in the perception of non-face body parts, in illusory body ownership. In this experiment, we sought causal evidence for the involvement of the EBA in the RHI. Sixteen participants took part in a sham controlled, 1 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) experiment. Participants received (RHI condition) or asynchronous (control) stroking and were asked to report the perceived location of their real hand, as well as the intensity and the temporal onset of experienced ownership of the dummy hand. Following rTMS of the left EBA, participants misjudged their real hand's location significantly more toward the dummy hand during the RHI than after sham stimulation. This difference in "proprioceptive drift" provides the first causal evidence that the EBA is involved in the RHI and subsequently in body representation and further supports the view that the EBA is necessary for multimodal integration.
authors.affiliation: Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany ; Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Freie Universität Berlin Berlin, Germany ; Division of Mind and Brain Research, Charité University of Medicine Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wold
authors.affiliation: Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany ; Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Freie Universität Berlin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Jakub
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Limanowski
authors.affiliation: Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany ; Division of Mind and Brain Research, Charité University of Medicine Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Walter
authors.affiliation: Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany ; Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Freie Universität Berlin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Blankenburg
keywords: body representation; extrastriate body area; proprioceptive drift; rubber hand illusion; transcranial magnetic stimulation