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Introduction Electrical stimulation is increasingly relevant in a variety of medical treatments. In this study, the quality of referred sensations evoked using surface electrical stimulation was evaluated using the rubber hand and foot illusions. Methods The rubber hand and foot illusions were attempted under 4 conditions: (1) multi-location tapping; (2) one-location tapping; (3) electrical stimulation of sensation referred to the hand or foot; (4) asynchronous control. The strength of each illusion was quantified using a questionnaire and proprioceptive drift, where a stronger response suggested embodiment of the rubber limb. Results 45 able-bodied individuals and two individuals with amputations participated in this study. Overall, the illusion evoked by nerve stimulation was not as strong as illusions evoked by physically tapping but stronger than the control illusion. Conclusion This study has found that the rubber hand and foot illusion can be performed without touching the distal limb of the participant. Electrical stimulation that produced referred sensation in the distal extremity was realistic enough to partially incorporate the rubber limb into a person’s body image.
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Mirror-Brush Illusion: Creating phantom tactile percepts on intact limbs
Haptic illusions provide unique insights into how we model our bodies separate from our environment. Popular illusions like the rubber-hand illusion and mirror-box illusion have demonstrated that we can adapt the internal representations of our limbs in response to visuo-haptic conflicts. In this manuscript, we extend this knowledge by investigating to what extent, if any, we also augment our external representations of the environment and its action on our bodies in response to visuo-haptic conflicts. Utilizing a mirror and a robotic brushstroking platform, we create a novel illusory paradigm that presents a visuo-haptic conflict using congruent and incongruent tactile stimuli applied to participants' fingers. Overall, we observed that participants perceived an illusory tactile sensation on their visually occluded finger when seeing a visual stimulus that was inconsistent with the actual tactile stimulus provided. We also found residual effects of the illusion after the conflict was removed. These findings highlight how our need to maintain a coherent internal representation of our body extends to our model of our environment.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1910939
- PAR ID:
- 10463582
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- IEEE Transactions on Haptics
- ISSN:
- 1939-1412
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 7
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/TOH.2023.3279012
