The Relationship between Spatial Continuity and Sence of Ownership on Rubber Hand Illusion in Virtual Reality

Recently, research has been conducted on virtual hand illusion (VHI), which rubber hand illusion (RHI) is induced in a virtual space. In this study, the spatial continuity of the body was broken in VR, and the effect of the spatial relationship between the virtual hand and the real hand on the sense of ownership was analyzed. Introspective reports were strongly correlated with synchronization of brain wave in right and left frontal lobes, and scores on the introspective report questionnaire assessing experiential sense of ownership were high. The lower scores on the items that asked about a more sensory sense of ownership suggested that the experienced sense of ownership may have been generated by consideration rather than intuition.

I. Introduction

People suffering brain damage due to stroke may experience disturbances in body perception, such as not feeling as if their hands belong to them. This symptom suggests that the unconscious sense of self-possession (the feeling that one’s body belongs to oneself) is established by a neurocognitive mechanism [6]. The development of neuroscience has revealed that even after brain damage, intensive rehabilitation can reorganize the brain. Neurorehabilitation is a concept and procedure that aims to promote functional recovery and social rehabilitation by inducing this brain plasticity. Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI) has been focused on as a neurorehabilitation method for patients who have abnormal sense of ownership of their hands.